


Blood Money

by Lukas17



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Assassins & Hitmen, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-12
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-01-16 06:55:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 73,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12337728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lukas17/pseuds/Lukas17
Summary: Look closely. In the shadows, there is violence.Prompto was engineered to do one thing, and to do it well. Contract by contract, he shaped a world he could only observe. Touching lives only by ending them.





	1. Enter a World of Assassination

_Did you see the latest episode?_

Like every Friday Noctis woke up with same words written on his upper arm. And like he did every Friday he pulled out a sharpie and wrote back:

_No, what happened?_

Soon he was covered with Luna’s writing. Little notes then covered the side of his torso and down the right of his leg. She wrote top to bottom with the tops of letters facing downwards for easier reading. He checked in every so often as he got ready to see what she had added. Someone had died that week, and she wrote a furious note about her fate on his left arm.

He didn’t watch this show, she knew he didn’t, but he enjoyed waking up to her ramblings on Friday mornings. The writing on their skin was the only place of privacy they had. Often they wrote so much they had to clean off before going to bed.

After breakfast he had training with Gladio, and she had lessons. Neither of them wrote to each other at that time, but they reconvened at lunch to talk about a superhero movie coming out. A reboot fifty years after the original, in all its terrible glory, had been released and panned by critics. He thought it looked pretty good, she thought the actor looked too different from the comics. They got into a debate on how valid a criticism that was until afternoon lessons began.

In the evening he went out with Ignis and Gladio to watch a game while she packed up and left her home in Altissia for the ten hour drive to Lucis.

\----

It was dark and raining, but the city of Galahd was in an uproar. Riots painted the street red as blood was spilled and buildings set afire. A banker was hung in his office for his betrayal, the debt collectors nursed their wounds in their hideaways. In City Hall a bill, the spark that lit this powder keg, had halted all assistance to the people until a debt that was not theirs had been paid.

Inside his estate Duke Eadric sipped a cup of tea as his guards held off the rioters from his grounds. The chaos had not breached the front gate, and he had no reason to believe it would. By morning people would return to their broken homes and abide by the decisions that had been made. Riots only had so much power.

Prompto hadn’t arrived in Galahd until well after news had hit. People had been outside gathering in groups to watch the T.V and read the papers. The bars had been filled with people growing angrier and angrier as investigative journalists revealed more information, and P.R people tried to smooth things over. Galahd was a lit explosive, and that evening the fuse had reached it’s end.

The crowd at Duke Eadric’s front gate spread almost a block down. People yelled and screamed at the guards who clutched their guns close. Several buildings shared a wall with the estate’s border, but no one had attempted to clear the barbed wire. Prompto found the electrical box on the side of the building and cut all power to the area. He was over the wall and into the estate grounds before anyone could throw the switch back on.

A young guard was patrolling the far edge of the estate. He silently passed by the statue of leviathan, completely unaware of Prompto relieving his back pocket of his keycard.

The estate was large, but Prompto had gotten ahold of the blueprints. He found the security room in the east wing and knocked out the sole guard in the tiny room.

Duke Eadric had taken tea in the study. Two guards were posted at the door, and two down each end of the hallway. He chose to approach from the east end, where he threw a small bust at the base of the stairs to lure one of the guards from his post. When that guard didn’t come back his friend went down to check, and they both ended up dead at the base of the steps.

He took the uniform off of one of them, but he wouldn’t be able to sneak past the two at the door. Duke Eadric didn’t have so many guards that an unfamiliar face would go unnoticed. But he used the familiarity of the uniform to aid in his approach, getting only two feet away before one moved to intercept him. The man’s arm went to Prompto’s shoulder rather than his gun, and Prompto capitalized on this hesitation. His jammed his knife into that guards throat in an instant, then in the other guard’s throat before he could move to stop him. Both bodies made a thud as they hit the floor, startling Duke Eadric from his chair.

Duek Eadric grabbed for his kettle and brandished it as if it were sword, spilling tea over the floor. But this part of the job was simple. Prompto closed the gap between himself and the Duke in three strides then slid the sharp blade through Eadric’s trachea. Blood spilled from his throat, his body went ridged. For a few moments the Duke seemed stunned. Then he fell to the floor.

In a moment his breathing had stopped completely, his eyes open but unseeing. Prompto checked to make sure the pulse wasn’t there before making his escape, scaling back up the wall and into an alleyway on the west side of the estate. The riots were no less fierce than when he’d begun, a guard was dead in the streets, and the air boiled with further violence.

He quickly made his way to city hall where a second, smaller mob was outside. They were much less focused, however, and violence distracted the local guard from the entrances. He slipped in through one of the side entrances after picking the lock.

The bill had been tucked away in one of the millions of filing cabinets for safe keeping, but the briefing came with a number and location. It took very little searching for him to find the document and turn it to ash with his lighter.

Extraction was difficult. He had to spend the night in the city until they opened up the roads in the morning. He found a small building near the westbound freeway and camped out there until six in the morning. The gates opened at eight, and he was out. First walking half a day till the next town, then riding a chocobo until he made it through the border back into The Empire.

The safehouse was in the mountains, a full six day ride from where he had crossed the border. It had a basic generator for power, no cell service or internet, and half the time the pipes were frozen over so they had to chop ice to heat up. The nearest town was a day's snowmobile ride away, and rarely had more than the bare necessities stocked in the local store. It hadn’t snowed in several days, so the drive up was relatively easy.

Aranea was asleep on the couch next to the fire. Her left leg was bare with blood soaked bandages wrapped around the thigh, but she was resting peacefully so he didn’t wake her. Everything else was where he’d left it. Clothes were strewn all over the floor, books shoved in a corner, a handful of dishes in the sink. It was like he never left.

He took a shower. It was a rare day where the pipes were working even if they never had hot water. He scrubbed off every atom of grime that stuck to his skin until the cold water felt like it was stinging his bones and then sat and read the words on his skin.

In the years since the words first started appearing he had never written to the two on the other side. The ladies at the compound used to bring out the belt if they caught someone so much as looking at any writing on their skin. It had been a lot easier to ignore them.

But he didn’t live at the compound anymore. Lady Sierra wasn’t there to whip his back. So he read.

He knew who they were, they wrote each other’s names all the time. And sometimes he thought about writing back, but he never picked up the pen. It was nice to read what they were up to, it felt like reading a story book in a way.

Two days later he and Aranea made the drive to pick up the dead drop with his money from the mission. It was a day and a half drive away in a larger town than what was nearby. She went to pick up supplies for the storm they had coming while he waded in a river and turned over rocks until he found the stash. 

He joined Aranea at a used book shop where they’d just gotten in the Crystal Thrones series from a donor. They caught his eye only because he recognized that as the series Luna wrote about weekly, so he spent the few gil on the whole set. It was difficult to pack up the thick books in the compartment on their snowmobile next to the beans and cereal, but they managed to get every copy back home right as the wind picked up and snowfall increased.

By Friday the storm was in full swing. Their power was out, and the house rocked under the wind. Aranea had been sketching from her new life drawing book for hours and the floor in the living room was covered in paper. He lit a candle in his room and held it up against his arm to see what else had been written that day.

_Giel died off screen! Can you believe it? They dedicated half of book five to her death and she just dies off screen. Complete nonsense._

He sighed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check me out at ithinkicanwritesometimes on tumblr.


	2. Senator Byron

Luna arrived in Insomnia near lunchtime on Saturday. Noctis had been waiting for her in the lobby of her hotel, and immediately swept her away for that entire evening. They first went out to lunch at a small restaurant near his apartment, then to the mall after which they break at the citadel at the request of her brother. When they got bored of the Citadel they decided, rather spontaneously, to go to a club. Noctis picked one at random, some high end one downtown. They both tried to leave discreetly, but ran into Cor as they left and ended up going with Gladio and Ignis.

There was a live band playing. Nothing too popular, but Luna had a few of their albums so she sang along as they danced. When dancing got a little too tiring they took breaks at the bar and ordered a drink. This repeated a few times until he had a very bad idea.

“You wanna sneak out?” He said in her ear, speaking just loud enough that he could be heard above the music. “My place is just a few blocks away.”

Luna’s face split into a grin he was familiar with. It appeared whenever he’d managed to convince her to do something a little bit reckless. “How will we get out?”

“You notice that exit by the bathrooms?”

She nodded, immediately understanding what the plan was. Luna first excused herself to go to the restroom. Noctis waited five minutes before doing the same. Neither Ignis nor Gladio tried to stop him, and he was able to slip out the back exit.

They got caught of course. Ignis knew exactly what they were planning and left out the front to cut them off at the alleyway entrance. They were allowed back inside, and ended up insisting on staying until two in the morning as revenge. Gladio escorted Luna back to her hotel, and Ignis lectured him on the walk back to his apartment.

Sunday was Luna’s entire reason for visiting. She was scheduled to heal people of star scourge in the morning until noon then sit through several meetings and be entertained by a few local dignitaries. Afterwards she had to head back home to resume her usual lessons in Tenebrae. There was no time for him to see her after her day began so he woke up early to eat breakfast with her in the dining area with her brother and his father.

He visited her for a moment while she was healing the sick, but chose not to spent too much time distracting her. Ignis stopped by with some paperwork for him to work on. Which he eventually got around to doing after taking a lunchtime nap.

At around three he got a note on his arm written with one of the crappy pens they supplied to people in attendance.

_Senator Byron is such a bastard._

Noctis couldn’t help but snicker. Senator Byron didn’t typically come off as particularly dangerous or sleazy, but he was despite the posturing. Even when compared to other politicians he was greedy, heartless, and charismatic. Noctis pulled out a pen from his bag and wrote back.

_What’s he trying to do this time?_

A few moments Luna wrote back:

_He’s trying to lower the tax on land and the tariff on fine good exports. Wonder why._

Senator Byron owned an entire county’s worth of Tenebrae vineyards that bottled wine expensive enough to make even him think twice before buying. The most expensive was called the Three Sisters because he’d inherited the land from a great aunt through a technicality after she had died of an accident. Most of the land he owned was obtained in such a manor, but no one dared suggest anything barring the other two sisters who owned the rest of their family’s vineyard. His bottle sold better despite the change in hands, proving Byron to make a better businessman than a politician.

_Honestly someone needs to get rid of this guy._

_From court?_

_From life. Maybe then he’ll shut up._

_I feel like blackmailing would be more appropriate._

_But not as satisfying._

\---

The Crystal Thrones books were thick with tiny text, it took him an entire day to finish half of the first, and shortest, entry into the series. Outside the storm was at it’s worse, layering inches upon inches of snow until they could barely get their door open to go and gather wood from the shed outside. On the kitchen counter they had the CD player on, switching between each other’s choices every time the thing stopped playing. Lunch had been some toast and bacon that had been fried up next to the fire.

Prompto enjoyed storms. He could sit down for a few days and not worry about anyone coming to attack them. They had food, water, and firewood. There wasn’t much more he felt he needed.

His soulmates hadn’t written the day before, likely because Luna was in Insomnia. He’d noticed them talking about it off and on for a while, but figured that it was confirmed when he saw it in the paper in Galahd. They were probably too busy talking to actually write.

At three-thirty he went to put on lotion to stave off the cracking the wind chill had done to his skin to find some writing under his sleeve.

Prompto wasn’t familiar with a Senator Byron, but he did recognize the name. He had a mother, an aged woman, whom he filled a contract for. Politics weren’t something he dabbled in so he didn’t remember the specifics of it, but he remembered killing an aunt in the countryside. He mulled over what he read for a while before bringing it to Aranea.

“Just ignore it.” She said. “If they’re not paying you to do anything then you don't need to worry about it.”

“But they are my soulmates…” he began.

“So? You’re not living in some romance novel. You don’t owe them anything. Let this guy make their lives hell, who cares?”

He frowned, but he didn’t know what he was expecting. Aranea didn’t have a soulmate. She often seemed annoyed by the entire topic.

“What if I did do it?”

“Might royally freak them out. Might make them happy, who can tell. Seems like a lot of work just for some recognition.”

He left her to her painting to go to his room. It was colder away from the fire, but he’d heated up a few bricks to bring in and warm up the room in his own fireplace. For an hour he distracted himself with an old book series he read as a kid, but his mind wandered back to his arm. Eventually he peeled off his jacket and his thermals to look at it again. The ink was clear, the words neat and orderly.

It was difficult to dissect how serious these words were. Was Luna venting, or was Senator Byron a genuine bastard. He found a pen in his drawer and twirled it around as he contemplated what to say. How did someone write to two people who didn’t know he even existed?

He uncapped the pen, but that action didn’t spur him to write. He tested it on the ankle of his foot to see if either of them would notice, but all was silent fifteen minutes after.

His heart beat felt loud in his chest. It felt like he was racing against some invisible timer, and he didn’t know how much time was left. If he was going to do write something he had to do it now. Who knew when he’d have an opportunity to do so.

_**Contract Accepted.** _

His hand shook, but the words came out clean in black ink. For a moment he stared at his arm to see if someone would write back, but he remained unmarred beyond that.

He dropped the pen and put his thermals back on. The words stayed covered for the rest of the night. The storm would pass after a few days, and he would decide what to do after that.

\---

Luna’s stomach dropped when she read the words written in unassuming black ink. That was not Noctis’ handwriting.

Her first thought was that someone else had written on his arm, but Noctis didn’t write back explaining that. In fact he didn’t write back at all. She went through the entire assembly alone, and was ushered into the car without a word.

The words were there the next morning even if they were a little faded. Whoever wrote them hadn’t washed them off. They didn’t know how this worked.

It was unnerving to think that there had been a third person all this time. Someone reading, but not responding. She felt almost violated. Like someone had been reading her diary for years and she was just finding out about it now. She wondered if Noctis was feeling the same way, but she didn’t dare pick up the pen to find out.

She didn’t tell anyone about the words, though she knew she should. Ravus would want to hear of a third person. He might try and track them down. But this person had spent so long in silence, she doubted they would be easy to find. All they had were two words after all.

The next day she was back with tutors and Noctis was training. They didn’t write out their morning greetings like usual even though the words had been erased in the night. She felt anxious, stomach twisted in knots. If this person was real and serious then this could blow up in her face.

\---

Senator Byron returned home on Tuesday after making a stop at Galdin Quey for a day at the resort. Prompto watched the arrival from a cafe near his estate.

This wasn’t his hardest contract, not by a longshot. Senator Byron was relatively high up, but he was no Duke, no agent. No one had any reason to believe he would be in danger so security would be lax. His estate was large, however, as it was easy and cheap to buy land in the countryside. The only blueprints he could find on the place were in town hall and incomplete. He’d have to do some guess work when he got in.

The easiest way to get in was to knock out a servant coming in for his shift and steal his clothes. Senator Byron employed a large staff, he didn’t get any looks when he walked in.

On one end of the estate there was a pool and a nearby tennis court. A woman was cleaning leaves out with a large net, and someone was doing some gardening at the edge of the estate nearby, but otherwise it was clear. The house itself was three stories tall. It had a main entrance with three garages and a large garden decorating it. Several groundskeepers were trimming back the hedges and sweeping up the dead leaves.

He spent the morning blending in and scouting. Whenever he didn’t look busy enough some superior would give him a chore, and he’d become that much more familiar with the layout of the estate. He learned where each room was and who was normally in it.

The senator holed himself up in his room for the entire day, coming out only for meals and the like. Prompto kept a close eye on the entrance to his room, and the entrance to his mother’s room at the other end of the hall. Byron’s wife had left in a red car soon after he arrived and didn’t seem keen on returning that evening. Her car was still gone when the evening crew left and the night crew clocked in.

For the most part the night crew seemed to have an easy time of it. If the senator requested something they were to attend to it, but there was no party to prepare for or big event to plan so many of them gathered in the breakroom downstairs and waited for the senator to call them on the intercom. Prompto checked on them once, but there were few enough that he would be spotted.

Luna had requested blackmail, so he waited until someone delivered the senator’s mother her medication before doing anything. It took thirty minutes for the drug cocktail to kick in, and once it did she wouldn’t wake for eight hours. He slipped into her room.

Inside the moderately decorated room the senator’s mother was curled up under her afghan, hair pulled into curlers and faced smeared with some sort of cream. She didn’t stir once as he went through her makeup drawers, her desk, her dresser, and finally her closet.

He found a diary in her dresser, but the most damning blackmail was hidden in a small shoebox in the back of her closet. It was a few “receipts”, a slip of paper that confirmed the target, means of death, and payment amount in plain black text. Clients were always advised to burn them upon completion of the contract, but a fair amount never did. Some, like she, seemed to almost collect them. There were four in her box, the one he completed and three others he was certain he did not. He folded them up and slipped them into his suit pocket next to the diary.

He honestly debated going after the senator. Luna may have stated she wanted him dead, but Noctis had just wanted blackmail. Blackmail didn’t work on a dead target. But politicians were known for worming their way out of trouble. He debated for a long while, hiding in the sunroom to think it over.

He finally came to a decision a little past twelve. When he peeked his head out he saw that the guard had stopped her patrolling to check her phone. He was in the senator’s bedroom before she could finish sending off that text.

The senator was asleep in his bed. An empty bottle of wine was on the floor, the glass by his bedside table, but otherwise the room was spotless.

He didn’t have any urge to make this fancy or painful, but also didn’t have any tools. Without hesitating he walked up to the senator and wrapped his hands around the man’s throat.

The senator woke up immediately, but he couldn’t speak with the constriction around his throat. He instinctively tried to tear the hands away, grunting softly in his struggle, but Prompto’s grip did not falter in the slightest. Byron then made fists and tried to weakly knock his arms away to no avail. He let out a wheeze in one last ditch effort to get air into his lungs before going silent.

Choking someone to death took a lot longer than most people realized. Prompto counted seven minutes to make sure the man was unconscious, then reached down and twisted until he felt the bones in his neck pop and break. Even if that didn’t kill him he wouldn’t be able to tell anyone what had happened.

His exit was easy. In the morning when the night crew left he trailed behind them just ten minutes later. It would take half a day for a servant to enter the room and find his corpse, and by then he was out of town, in a new costume, and forging an ID card to get past security.

\---

By wednesday Luna was feeling much better. The writing hadn’t shown up again, and she hadn’t heard anything about senator Byron. She and Noctis had slowly begun writing to one another once again. Perhaps the writing had been some sort of fluke, or a trick played by one of Noctis’ friends while he was asleep. They didn’t have any solid idea, but Noctis was quick to point the blame on Gladio.

She woke up on her off day feeling refreshed. Noctis had written her a message about a game coming out that day, which she read while sipping her coffee. At noon she took a walk before returning to watch a movie.

A stack of paper and a book on her movie shelf gave her pause, however. She couldn’t remember those being there before she left the room. She opened one to see if she should throw it away or not, and immediately felt her heart sink.

She recognized that name. Senator Byron had inherited property from him a few years ago after he’d had an accident. The other paper listed another person now gone. As did the other two.

With shaking hands she opened the book, old and seemingly handwritten by someone deeply disturbed by thoughts of paranoia and anger. The last entry was short and dated back a few months, written in bold, black ink:

May my uncle forgive me for what I have done. In a week’s time his first born shall die.

She closed the book.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Prompto has a barcode on his arm, right?  
> And Agent 47 has one on the back of his bald head.  
> Coincidence? I THINK NOT.  
> Check me out at ithinkicanwritesometimes on tumblr.


	3. The Canary Hotel

Luna stayed awake that entire night, stomach churning and bile threatening to leave her throat. Her thoughts were like waves, starting off mild but increasing and frequency and panic until her heart sped up and her eyes began to water. They slowed down just before she got sick or burst into tears, and she’d lull into a state of half rest only to do it all again. Morning felt like a relief. The sun a small comfort.

She didn’t go to any of her classes that morning. A servant came to check on her, and she played ill to get her to leave. Time seemed to pass slowly in her room, yet she didn’t notice when the clock struck twelve and news of her behavior had spread. A knock sounded on her door.

“Luna.” Ravus said, “May I come in.”

“Sure.”

She buried her head under the covers, but it didn’t take much to make her look as sick as she felt.

“Are you sick?” He asked.

“A little.”

“A lot. You normally don’t stay in bed this long unless you’re at death’s doorstep.”

“Funny.”

“Do you want me to bring you anything?”

He could tell something was wrong, that was an I’m-concerned-for-you question if she ever heard one. Luna contemplated keeping quiet as if that would make everything go away, but she knew it wouldn’t.

“I found something in my room.” She began, reaching over the other side of her bed to fish out the diary and letters. “I know it’s not mine.”

She handed him the papers. “And earlier this week someone else’s writing appeared on my arm.”

Ravus’ face creased as he inspected the papers. He seemed to pick up on what they were quickly, but his face remained stony. “What did it say?”

“Contract accepted. I was complaining about Senator Byron when it’d appeared.”

“You don’t think it was Noctis?”

“No. We thought it might’ve been a prank by a friend. But then I got the papers.”

Ravus was silent for a moment. He didn’t look up as he skimmed through the diary, stopping only at the page mentioning the death of Mrs. Byron’s cousin.

“Senator Byron was found dead in his home a few hours ago.”

Luna’s stomach dropped and her mouth tasted only ashe. At that moment she genuinely did feel like she was going throw up.

“Foul play is suspected, but they’ve yet to find anything.”

She didn’t know what to say to all of this. To think that this strange person had been in her room, had seen everything she and Noctis had ever written. Had killed someone.

“We’ll find them.” Ravus said quickly, “We’ll figure this out, okay?”

She didn’t feel very reassured, but Ravus didn’t push further as he left.

\---

There were few people for Ravus to turn at this time.

He handed off the book and papers to Judge Raul’s secretary. The courts would decide what to do with the information, but he wasn’t all that concerned with it.

The only person he could think of to help with Luna’s problem was a man named Rian Bruno. He was the spymaster for the Tenebrae royalty, and had done well so far. Ravus rarely saw him out of his office.

“Bruno.” Ravus said as he knocked on the door. “A moment.”

Rian opened the door. His suit was wrinkled and his eyes dark, but his eyes were clear as he looked up at Ravus.

“Can I help you, your highness?”

“Yes.” Ravus let himself in and shut the door behind him. “I need this to be kept quiet.”

Rian didn’t sit even as Ravus took the chair across from his desk. “I’m listening.”

“Luna seems to have a second bond. I need you to track this person down.”

Rian nodded, “When did you find this out?”

“She saw writing on her arm this past weekend. She was speaking of Senator Byron at the time, and we believe this led to his death.”

Rian sat at his computer, fingers flying away as he pulled up records. “She asked for his death?”

“I believe she was merely venting.”

“What did they say?”

“They accepted the contract. That is all we know about the matter.”

Rian’s eyes darted over the files he’d pulled up, “Senator Byron died in his home, suspected strangulation. No signs of forced entry.”

“Can you find them?”

Rian didn’t look up. “I will have to send one of my men there. The local authorities found little.”

“I want you to go personally.” Rian’s eyes met Ravus’, “This matter needs to be wrapped up quickly.”

Rian didn’t immediately respond to this. His eyes darted between the screen and Ravus, before finally settling on the wall behind Ravus’ head. “Understood Your Highness.”

“Thank you.”

\---

Aranea went out and bought a new generator. Prompto found it hooked up and running when he came back one evening. It was able to power every light and the TV without failing, and Aranea had chosen to host a mini movie marathon of sorts inside with a few of The Furies.

Claire was on the floor buried under a handful of blankets to stave off the cold. Cindy perched herself on the left end of the couch, Aranea on the right. In the middle, asleep, was Biggs.

A few people gave him a half wave as he entered, but he didn’t stick around to talk. There had been a letter from The Organization in his mailbox so he figured he had a new job.

He entered his room and changed into some thermals before sitting down on his bed to read the letter.

Oprtv Prompto Argentum

Assnmt: Infltr org Brutus. Bas lctin lndfrm053-239. Dtils wll fllow.

Strt date: 01/342/91235

Eqipmnt reqstfrm attch

He’d heard of Brutus in passing. They were a spy ring, from what he could recall. He didn’t know much past that so he decided to wait to hear more.

The next day he got a earpiece with a prerecorded message on it. Aranea tossed it on his bed as he tried to catch the last few moments of sleep before he had to get up. The house was still quiet as everyone slept, so he reluctantly sat up to listen to it.

“Operative Prompto.” The robotic voice said. “Brutus is a recently formed spy ring dealing in high profile espionage. They’ve led to the fall of the entire Rossi family in Niflheim, and the terrorist attack in Fano. Recently they’ve acquired a NOC-list of Niflheim operatives working abroad. Our client wishes to remain anonymous. Their base is located on the Mantua islands off the coast of Altissia. I will leave you to prepare.”

He tossed the earbud in the fire where the plastic melted over the wood. Aranea was brewing coffee in the kitchen, and the smell had managed to get Cindy up. She gave a tired hello, which he returned before returning to fill out the equipment form.

Prompto rarely needed much. He requested his usual rifle to be dropped near a vantage point and a few vials of poison to be left in his safe house. An hour later he returned to add a switchblade and a garrote. Certain that this would be sufficient he wrapped the list in a yellow envelope and left it in his mailbox.

By the time he was done everyone was awake. Cindy had made a good attempt at bread pudding even if the entire thing was a touch runny. Wedge joined them soon after and they all sat down at the kitchen table for their monthly game.

When the topic of roleplaying games had come up Prompto had been twelve. They’d all lived at the compound and Biggs outright banned DnD. He hated the entire idea of it, and had found an RPG called Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines to play instead. Thus far they had been working on the same campaign for a few years.

“Okay.” Biggs said, “So everyone wakes up after sunset, the Nosferatu informant has escaped...”

\---

On Wednesday evening Noctis’ phone rang. He let it go to voicemail only for it to ring again. On the third time he moved to turn it off before he noticed Luna’s name on the screen.

“Hey Noctis.” She said. “How’ve you been?”

“I’ve been fine, how about you?” He lied.

“Stressed, but Ravus has promised to look into this whole… thing.”

Noctis grunted in agreement, but he couldn’t find anything else to say. What could he say?

“So I figured we could talk on the phone for a while until it’s been resolved.”

“Sounds good. So, what happened on Crystal Thrones?”

Talking to Luna on the phone was so strange, he almost didn’t like it. They’d transitioned from using the phones when his father had caught wind of what times he’d call her, eventually attempting to restrict when they could call and for how long. It’d just been easier to write.

But he was an adult now, his father couldn’t tell him to do anything he didn’t want to do.

\---

“Good morning Prompto.” A female voice said in his ear. He adjusted the little nub so that it sat more comfortably, “My name is Scarlett. I will be your handler for this mission.”

“I’ve had you before, haven’t I?” He pocketed the I.D card and slipped the garrote in his suit jacket.

“On a few occasions. Your goal for this evening is the NOC-list. According to our client the list is in room 14A, file cabinet 35, shelf B. Your I.D card will get you into all level four and level three rooms. Room 14A is a level one room, and the cabinet requires a special key, which has been provided.

The base is located in the Canary Hotels, the entrance is in the lounge room 1A. A person at the front desk will give you the key when presented with the I.D.

The NOC-list is set to go up for auction in a week’s time. Two operatives have already failed in its retrieval. Good luck.”

The earpiece went silent. Outside his window he could see the Canary Hotel, a tall building that stretched towards the sun. At the base was the valet and a shuttle station that went to the parking structures and a few local tourist spots.

Most people who visited the Canary Hotel were not poor. The Organization supplied him with a basic navy suit, a pair of shoes to wear, and a fake luggage to bring with him. He put the suit and shoes on then headed outside..

People filtered in and out of the hotel fairly regularly as they left or went to the beaches that surrounded the island. No one looked up at him as he entered the automatic doors into the lavish entryway.

The interior of the hotel was fairly modern with sleek furniture and crisp nautical designs. Staff wore vintage inspired uniforms in blues and whites, the gift shop had a picture of a whale under the signs. He checked in under an assumed name: Cesar Romero. A bellhop took his luggage, and led him up to his room.

He stayed in his room for an hour before returning downstairs. An older gentleman was at the front desk jotting down something on his notecard. Prompto showed him the I.D and requested to be shown to the lounge room 1A.

The man didn’t say anything as he led Prompto to the room. He opened the door with a special key and let him inside.

Inside was plain, the lounge was hardly used and everything was recently wiped down. The carpet was more worn on a certain path then the rest, which led him to a small table. On top he pulled off the top of a bust where a card scanner was hidden away and slid his card.

The fireplace whirled then opened up, revealing a set of stainless steel stairs that led downwards. He walked down three floors before finding a door that opened up into white hallways. It sounded like a vacuum, the walls canceled all noise so well he felt a sliver of paranoia. The hallway was clear, so he opened the door and went in.

None of the walls were labeled. He had to pay attention to which turns he took lest he get lost. It quickly became apparent why other operatives failed, anyone who should be here knew their way. Anyone who got lost was suspect. Prompto made it a point to not look flustered or confused as he passed people by. Spy organizations made it a rule to keep operatives in the dark as much as possible. As long as he looked like he belonged then he did.

He stumbled on the level 3 storage room first. It was the closest to the entrance, and therefore wouldn’t have higher security. Inside he tried to look busy as only a handful of people entered and exited. He found info on several politicians and media personalities. Nothing incriminating, but certainly a start if someone wanted to work on it. He eventually found himself getting a little too curious than he should and checked for Luna and Noctis.

They both were located in the room, meaning that they weren’t hiding much, mostly such mundane things such as age, height, known associates, and the like. Luna’s noted the therapy she attended following the annex of Tenebrae and Noctis’ listed the depression he suffered after his illness. Nothing that couldn’t be found out by a loose lipped maid or unaware servant. Despite that, he found himself pocketing them and leaving the room quickly.

He found a level one keycard partly by luck. There had been a bathroom at the far end of one hall, and like all bathrooms it was eventually used. An older man had entered, and Prompto, knowing the look of an overly stressed, high-ranking executive, followed behind. As the man leaned over to wash his hands Prompto pick pocketed his keycard.

Range of movement now opened, he followed his gut and found a level 1 storage room. It wasn’t what he was looking for, but two people walked in as he searched and he felt he had to stay until they left. They browsed for quite a while, and in that time he found something interesting. 

Patricio Scientia’s health was suffering. He was on a list for a heart donor, but due to a rare condition called situs inversus was having difficulty finding an appropriate heart. Not even working at the citadel had helped him as so few people lived with the condition in the first place. Figuring this man was related to Ignis Scientia, a known associate on Noctis’ record, he noted the information before putting the file back..

The next room he found what he was working for. The NOC-list was almost sixty pages long, and went into a frightening amount of detail. Names, locations, dates. Solomon Rossi, Maarav Tetra, Rian Moulin. He separated it out and stuffed it in the various pockets of his jacket.

Next was the exit. Prompto mentally retraced his steps to find the quickest way out. He subtracted out any wandering he did and the few first false leads. Five halls down, first right, two down then a left, through the doors and he was home.

A clicking sound came from his earpiece, a noise so common he didn’t even flinch. “Good evening Prompto.” Scarlett said, “We have new intel. Reatha Bianchi is a high level member of Brutus and former Organization agent she has just been spotted checking into the Canary Hotel for a two day stay. A bonus is available for her elimination.”

He sighed.

Leaving in a hurry without arousing suspicion was an art form he’d learned a long time ago. No one looked up as he dumped the keycard in the trash in the bathroom and headed out. Reatha Bianchi passed him in the lobby area, but he wasn’t worried in the slightest.

He went up to his room and ordered room service: lobster thermidor, orange cake, and the handsomest bell boy they could find. In twenty minutes a young man knocked on the door. Prompto invited him in then knocked him out with a lamp and hid him in the closet.

The servant had a master keycard for all the general rooms in the building, but he didn’t know if that would be helpful. Prompto took the servant’s keycard and went downstairs to the records room. Inside he looked up the recent check ins. None of them listed Reatha Bianchi by name, but he could check the occupancy history of each of the recent rooms checked in.

If he had to guess, Bianchi was staying in the Empire suite up on the top floor, one that didn’t open with the master keycard. The records didn’t say what kind of keycard he needed to open it so he started looking.

No one left a special keycard lying around in the breakroom. He went to the security room and knocked out the single guard watching the monitors. The cameras, unfortunately, only went to floor sixty. Undeterred he looped the footage and destroyed any recordings of him before hiding the man’s body in a closet.

There was likely a separate guard station for the upper levels. If he had to guess it would be on floor 61, and filled with much more experienced guards.

The elevators wouldn’t go to the top five floors without a keycard so he took the stairs. Near the top he heard two voices speaking to one another. Figuring it was one of the guards he stepped outside the stairwell onto floor 58, propped the door open with a decorative side table, and dropped a vase on the floor.

“Looks like you have something to do rookie.” A gruff voice said.

A younger man grumbled out something too low for Prompto to make out, but loud footsteps descended the stairs. The younger man was a little taller than Prompto. He moaned about kids breaking things when he noticed the vase, but didn’t get much more out when Prompto came up behind him and knocked him out.

The younger guard had a keycard and a uniform he could take. He left the man in an unoccupied room and went up to the 65th floor using the elevator. Upstairs were a few more guards mostly near the elevator, he made sure to keep his head down and walk with purpose as he searched for Bianchi’s room.

The hallway outside of the Empire suite was clear with only an occasional guard walking past. He made sure not to loiter outside of it for too long. His keycard worked on the other empty suite, but he wasn’t entirely sure if he could get into Bianchi’s room without being detected.

After an hour of waiting Bianchi returned to her room. Soon after an order for room service was called. Prompto took the opportunity and went down to grab it himself.

“Thanks, that makes my life so much easier.” The girl said. She handed him the covered plate and the portable table to set it on before heading back inside.

No one paid him any mind as he returned with the food. Bianchi was the only person on this floor, and the level of security was high for one person. Many had turned to talks of what they would do after an hour had passed and they could go home. He breezed by them all and knocked on Bianchi’s door.

“Come in.” Bianchi said. Prompto swiped his card and felt almost a little stupid when the door unlocked. “Just leave it by the door.” Bianchi said, waving her hand vaguely in said direction. She had a few files in her hand, but he couldn’t make out what they were.

Prompto opened up the table and set the tray of food down on top. Bianchi didn’t react to his movements.

He allowed himself to take one deep breath before grabbing the steak knife that came with her meal. In a moment he’d cleared the distance between them both and thrust the knife towards her gut.

Bianchi wasn’t expecting him, but she reacted just fast enough to smack his hand to the side. He dropped the knife as her leg came up and met his thigh, dropping him to the floor.

She tried to run for the door, but he caught her ankle before she made it. She smashed to the floor same as he did, and immediately began struggling. Her feet kicked his arms away, and she tried to stand up, but he’d retrieved the knife and shoved it through her back.

The weak blade broke against her rib, she screamed in pain even as the soundproofing made it a wasted effort. She swung a fist at him in a last ditched effort, but he grabbed her hand and punched her in the side of her head. Bianchi collapsed on the floor still breathing in shallow breaths. He reached down and twisted her neck until he heard the familiar snap of bones breaking. Bianchi breathed in once before stilling.

He cleaned himself up in her bathroom and headed down the elevator. Only when he got to the bottom did he hear his earpiece chime again.

“Target confirmed down.” Scarlett said, “The money has been wired to your account.”

By nightfall he was off the island and in a nearby town arranging transportation for the next morning. As he wandered to a motel he passed by a public phone. He walked a few blocks past it before deciding, spontaneously,to turn around and pick the phone up.

Handlers had several code names which also doubled as code for contacting them. Scarlett was a color name, so the number would begin with 6. It was red, so the seventh and eighth number repeated on the tenth and twelfth. She had called at a time ending in 01, and was female so the second number was the next even number after six. He ran through his checklist of code to deduce the rest of the number before pressing the sixteen digits into the payphone.

It rang three times before she answered, “Yes agent?”

“Hey, can I ask for a favor? Has there been any missions approved that involve getting a heart?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So both Agent 47 and Prompto enjoy animals, especially birds. More proof they're related.
> 
> Check me out at ithinkicanwritesometimes on tumblr.


	4. Situs Inversus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the City of Cabo a school teacher meets his end to prolong the life of another.

Rian was let into the police station after flashing his I.D. The body was still on the table and freshly stitched up. The report they’d just finished had nothing substantial. Foul play obviously, but no poisons or drugs. A dead end.

He went to the estate where Byron’s grieving mother still lived while she was under investigation. A maid took him up to her room, but she was so distraught that she barely got a full sentence out between her blubbering.

No security cameras, no eye witnesses. Rian was beginning to think a ghost had killed this man.

In a last ditch effort he checked the cameras of a gas station near the outskirts of town.

“Excuse me miss.” He said, holding up his I.D card so the girl behind the counter could see it clearly. “You wouldn’t happen to have any security tapes I could look through?”

The girl stood up a little straighter as she nervously nodded, “Yes. They’re in the back.”

“Thank you, I will help myself.”

It was an old set, still using VHS’ and erasing over them. He shuffled through them at twice the speed, almost passing over the man he was looking for.

Agent NH-01987 had walked in wearing a grey jacket and jeans within that week. There were no timestamps on the video, no other time marker to help him. But he was certain that was Agent NH-01987, and if The Organization sent him in then there had to be more going on than he suspected.

He brought the girl back to view the tapes.

“Do you remember this person? Did he say anything to you?”

“I was working that day.” The girl said slowly, “But I don’t remember anything unusual.”

\---

His dead drop had money, a note handwritten by Scarlett, a burner phone, and a 16-digit number. He ducked into a busy coffee shop where no one would overhear him and dialed. The phone clicked when the person on the other end picked up, but neither of them said anything for a long moment.

“A heart has been located in the city of Cabo. A port city currently being bombed by the Lucian government in an attempt to wipe out a terrorist group. Your client is a political advisor named Patricio Scientia. You must extract the heart, intact, from an elementary school teacher and make the hand off at the small, nearby town of Florence. The Fury’s will be in right after you to conduct a separate mop-up operation. Inform field leader Highwind of the location of the donor before you exit. Be prepared to be picked up at 1900 hours, landform 295-63-69. I will leave you to prepare.”

The line went dead. He tossed the phone into the trash can outside.

He wasn’t expecting to be sent out so quickly, but he was glad to not have to wait around for too long. He passed time by loitering around at the park and seeing a movie in a local theater before heading downtown to the pick up area.

Landform 295-63-69 was right outside the red light district. He had the pleasure of waiting next to a working girl with a bruise on her left clavicle. When a car pulled up to the corner stepped forward, but the driver rudely barked out his name and told him to get in.

“Good evening agent.” The man said in the same gruff voice he’d used on the phone. “We are scheduled to land in Cabo in two hours, you will have until 0500 hours to find and retrieve the heart. I will be your handler for this mission.”

The man abruptly stopped speaking and refused to so much as look in Prompto’s direction as they drove out. They parked in an empty parking garage and boarded a helicopter in complete silence.

Only when they could see the planes and hear the explosions did his handler once again speak.

“Your kit contains surgical supplies and an SMG. A bullet proof vest is also available, but I would not recommend it due to it’s weight.” He passed Prompto a single sheet of paper. “This is the donor. You will be dropped a few blocks from his house. Intel shows that he is barricaded inside. Drop is in 15.”

His kit was in one of the compartments. It had all of the equipment promised including a belt for the line. He tightened it around his hips before hooking the line up to the loop to wait for his countdown.

“3... 2...1.”

He kicked off and let the line lower him quickly down. Once his feet touched the ground he unhooked his belt and got to work.

The bombings had destroyed most of the buildings in the area. A few bodies littered the ground. A fire had begun in an apartment building several blocks away. Some attempts had been made to contain it, but it was beginning to spread to the other areas of the block. Most of the signage had been destroyed, but he was able to locate the donor’s house easily. When he tested the front door he found it barricaded from the inside. As were the windows. He tested a few of them before finding an unsealed bathroom window to sneak through.

The donor was hiding down in his basement, which only had one approach. Down the stairs the donor sat with a loaded gun and some ammo, but his hands were too shaky to pull the trigger. He went down without a fight.

Prompto dragged him up the stairs to the kitchen table where he pushed all the supplies to the floor and dragged the body on top. He pulled out a syringe and filled it with just enough to put the donor under.

He didn’t wait to confirm that the anesthetic had worked, there was only so much time. The area and the donor had to be prepped, lines drawn and skin sanitized before he could begin. When preparations were finished he pulled on a pair of gloves and opened up the sanitized tools.

There wasn’t anything unusual in the donor’s chest barring a healed rib. That, and the other ribs that protected the organs, were cut through quickly with a battery powered saw. He dropped the cleanly cut ribs onto the floor where they splattered blood over his shoes.

He’d had some surgical training throughout his career, so getting through the ribs and cutting through the layers of tissue to get to the heart came naturally to him. He severed all the connections and pulled out the messy, still beating heart from the donor’s chest. It looked good, some scarring from age, but healthy for a man the donor’s age. He set it into the container and left the donor on the table.

Outside the army had taken a reprieve from the bombing and a tense stillness clung to the air. His voice seemed loud in the quiet.

“Highwind, mission complete. Body located at landform 309-22-35.” He said into his headset.

“Pick up in 5.”

Several helicopters rushed overhead. One stopping near him. A rope descended, and he grabbed hold of it to get pulled up. The others stopped at strategic points over the city and dropped The Fury’s down for their operation.

“Good work Prompto.” His handler said. “Your payment will be received at the handoff.”

The helicopter flew out of the city. Below he Aranea quickly set up a bomb near the house. When they were out of the city he saw it go off and the surrounding area go up in flames.

He wasn’t privy to the specifics of The Fury’s mission, but he could piece together what they were up to. He wondered which Lucien diplomat would get the credit for wiping out this terrorist group.

They flew out for three hours before landing on top of a large building in Insomnia. Two people approached the helicopter, one a woman in a set of scrubs and the other a man in a suit. The woman gently took the container and the man passed him an envelope.

“Thank you for your services.”

The two stepped back and the helicopter lifted off again.

“Where do you want to go?”

“Lyons.” He said. It was the third closest town to his safe house. “Can I get a snowmobile at the dropoff?”

His handler grunted in affirmative.

In 3 hours he was in Lyons picking up his snowmobile, 12 hours later he fell into his bed.

\---

Noctis and Luna had spoken on the phone twice. Once when Senator Byron died, and again when Friday approached. He tried to keep the topics lighter, but truth was that even he was a little shaken up by what had happened.

It was distressing to think that someone had been looking in all this time, and even more distressing to think that they were capable of killing someone. He felt paranoid just thinking about it. Like he could look around and not even see that person even if they stood in front of him. His mind had gone wild, thinking up worse and worse scenarios as he tried to sleep. At night he’d toss and turn until he felt sick.

The last straw was Lord Byron’s death. Suddenly he just couldn’t feel safe in his own apartment. He left to the Citadel the first chance he got and sequestered himself in his room.

Ignis left him a note on a stack of papers letting him know he’d be taking a week off. His uncle would get out of surgery that evening, and Ignis, understandably, would want to take care of him during recovery. This left Noctis to stew for the evening, then sleep for ten hours.

A knock at his door woke him on Saturday morning, “Noctis. Open the door.” His father said irritably. Regis didn’t wait for Noctis to get up, opening the door up as Noctis’ feet touched the floor. “Noctis it’s noon, what are you still doing in bed?”

“I was tired.” He said through a yawn.

“Well get your coffee. We have a problem.” He set the paper on top of the papers already on the table.

“What about?”

“General Mark’s body count.”

Noctis didn’t need to look at the paper to understand what his father meant. General Mark wasn’t the only general around, but he’d made a name for himself by seeing every problem as a nail and his army a hammer no matter what the conflict entailed. Ever since his appointment two years ago his father had a persistent, recurring ache in the back of his head.

“What’d he do?”

“Bombed a city, Cabo. Over eighty thousand dead, numbers are still rising. All to wipe out a terrorist group of only twenty people.”

“Did he at least get them?”

“Yes, all of them. Or so I’m told. They were squatting in some warehouse near the edge of the city. The press has been having a field day.”

Noctis glanced at the grizzly photo at the top of the day’s paper. 60,000 Killed By Lucian Monarchy the headline said.

“Can we do anything?”

“Damage control. Put some clothes on.”

\---

Another fitting, just like any other. This time for another white dress with butterflies embroidered on the shoulders. Luna all but kicked the dress off in her dash to get a pair of pants on.

“It will be ready by tomorrow evening ma’am.” The attendant said as Luna handed it over. “Would you like to add anything?”

“No, it’s fine. Thank you.”

“Have a good-day ma’am.”

Outside the streets surrounding the boutique were filled with people. Several events were happening in the square, and then there were people out to enjoy their Friday. Luna would blend in easily with the crowd.

“Jean.” She said to her guard. “I want to go to the mall.”

“Ma’am, are you sure that’s wise at this time?”

“I don’t often get the chance to come down here Jean. There’s also something I want to pick up from a shop.”

Jean looked apprehensive, but he couldn’t tell her no. She turned and began marching down the street trusting that he would keep up.

The downtown mall was large. It had over ten floors with of shops, three food courts, an entire grocery store, and an elevator that went both vertically and horizontally. When Luna was young she used to occupy herself by pressing random buttons and watching the streets go by past the glass. It was still fun now, but she resisted doing it as they got into the elevator and she selected the location. The elevator went up first, then across the long mile towards the other end of the mall. She pressed her face against the glass and watched the people on the outside go about their day. Besides her Jean glanced nervously at the buildings across the street.

They arrived safely at the other end and got off. This end was just as packed as before, but for a very different reason. A line had formed at the bookstore. It spilled out and wrapped around the entire floor. Some people at the front were picking up sleeping bags and electric kettles as the time approached three.

Luna breezed through the general entrance safely away from the crowds. Inside were very few people, mostly just staff waiting with dread as the release time grew near.

At the front a saleswoman was checking the count of the registers in preparation for the inevitable stampede.

“Excuse me.” Luna said as politely and forcefully as possible. “I have a special order. It’s under Luna.”

The saleswoman didn’t seem to recognize her, but she was polite as she checked the special orders list and went to the back returning in a few minutes with a thick book wrapped in brown paper with Luna’s name attached in a handwritten card. Luna settled the bill quickly with a half panicked cashier.

“Okay Jean, you can take me home now.” She announced.

In the car on the way home she plucked the card from the front and opened it.

__

_Dear Oracle Lunafreya Nox Fleuret,_

_I am honored that a member of the royal family has taken such an interest in my work. This latest chapter of Crystal Thrones is dedicated to you and your fiance._

_Alphonse_

She tore through the paper blocking her from her long awaited prize. Inside, under the dedications page, right under a mention of his wife and daughter was a note for her and Noctis.

“Jean! Jean! He wrote to me!”

\---

Everytime he wanted to contact his superiors he had to find a random convenience store and buy a burner phone. It had been difficult in Tenebrae since he couldn’t be caught doing it too often at the same store, but out in an area he’d never visited before it was easy to go in and not raise suspicion. The man behind the counter likely wouldn’t even remember him the second he left the store.

He looked for the busiest restaurant in the area, finding it in some cafe hosting a musical event with a handful of saxophonists trying to play over the chatting crowd. In the corner, with a coffee in hand, he dialed the number.

“Serial number.” The man on the other end said.

“A04NG2.”

“Connecting.”

In his pocket his official phone buzzed. Conflicted, he set the burner phone down and answered it.

“Rian, have you found anything?” Ravus said.

“No. I have found nothing. No tapes, no accounts. If someone was here he was a ghost.”

“Fine. Return immediately, I want you nearby in case something happens.”

The clicked and the dial tone blared. He pocketed his phone and picked up the burner to see it had been disconnected as well. Annoyed he dumped it in the trash and began the journey home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Agent 47's primary tools are his silverballers. Maybe he got Prompto a set for Christmas.  
> Good ol' Uncle 47 gettin' young children lethal weapons.
> 
> Check me out at ithinkicanwritesometimes on tumblr.


	5. Deceptive Cadence

Aranea arrived at 3AM just as he woke. Blood covered her body, but it, thankfully, wasn’t hers so she went to take a shower while he fixed a relatively lavish breakfast of smoked salmon, bacon, and bread. He stuck Nat King Cole in the C.D player and danced to the music until Aranea shut the water off and came back out. She went out to check the mail as he pulled the bacon from the pan then settled down to read the single letter addressed to her with her hot coffee

“Prompto.” Aranea said, voice serious. She set her coffee and the letter down to look him in the eye. “I’m only doing this because I’m your sister.”

He felt an air of dread overtake the kitchen. She had a rare apprehensive look on her face that made him sit down just in case.

“What’s up?”

“We didn’t get all of the terrorists.” She said carefully. “And they’re going to bomb the All Saint’s Music Hall during a performance for the Tenebrae royal family.”

He felt his stomach drop.

“We’re going to clear out their base after the fact. Our client wants to use it to encourage a more overt conflict with Niflheim.”

It sometimes shocked him just how cruel people could be. That someone would want to use violence to spark more violence. He sighed.

“When’s it going to happen?”

“Tuesday.”

Three days, no resources or help. He didn’t even know where to begin.

“I know what you’re thinking.” She said. “If we stop it they’ll know one of us was the leak.”

“How are they alive? I thought that’s why you had that mop up operation.”

“We only got the members in the area. Lucis just wanted to make people feel better. We were never sent to wipe them all out, just make a very public demonstration.”

“Shit…”

“It’s politics.”

“We gotta do something, I gotta do something.”

Aranea sighed, “I will reluctantly help you. So will Cindy, probably, she thinks everything you’re doing is so romantic. I’ll see who else’ll do something.”

She sent out a text to The Fury’s group chat, and at noon Biggs stopped by with a thick folder full of documents. Aranea had just gotten out of bed and came shuffling out in her chocobo pajamas when she heard him enter.

“I have a layout of the building, a list of people in attendance.” He said, “The itinerary, and I was able to get in to make a fake I.D card for you. I assume you’ll need it. Wedge says he can arrange for transportation and equipment.”

“You were able to do all this? You only had ten hours.”

“Security was shit. I assume someone’s making it easier for the bombers. Everything to get in was unencrypted and on a public network. So you’ll probably have to deal with them personally, assuming they’re smuggling the bomb in the night of and don’t have it on a timer.”

“You’ve dealt with worse, right Prompto?”

“I have, but I’ve never actually rescued someone.”

“You’ve kidnapped people though. What’s the difference?”

“A lot.” Biggs said. “Well, when you’re not doing it in a war zone. I talked to a guy, said that the most difficult thing in a rescue is keeping the subject calm. So when you get there I suggest you tell her immediately who you are. You’ve talked to her right, through the writing? She’ll trust you.”

“He literally said two words to her though.”

“But he also killed Lord Byron for her.”

“Yeah that’s romantic. I can’t wait for her to ask for it again, and again, and again. Until Prompto’s doing his job for free while she bats her eyelashes and keeps her hands clean.” Aranea’s voice rose.

“You’re such a pessimist.”

“You and Cindy are bad influences.”

Prompto slowly edged his way to his room.

“We just want Prompto to be happy. Is that so wrong?”

“It is when he’s so wrapped up pining for two very dangerous people who could ruin his life.”

He shut the door.

\---

“Thank you for coming Lady Lunafreya.” The conductor gripped her hand with a strength that left her hand feeling numb. “Please your highness, this way.”

A crowd of people had gathered outside. Paparazzi swarmed behind the barricade. She stopped only a few times to greet people and speak with them, but was quickly separated from them by her guard until she was safely inside.

At the center of the first floor was the stage where the band would play. Premium seats surrounded the stage where several attendants could pay special attention to the guests. Prices went down the further up the seats went, until the tenth floor where several hundred tiny, cheap seats could accommodate the less fortunate masses. Outside of the concert hall there was the ticket booths and the refreshment area for intermission. Luna was rushed past both and escorted up to the third floor where a specialty waiting area had been set up. It was decorated with several overstuffed chairs and a chaise lounge.

“Can I bring you anything?” An attendant asked.

“No, I’m alright thank you.”

The attendant bowed then left her alone with her guardsmen. She flicked through some of the magazines left on the table, but none of them seemed interesting so she pulled out her phone to play a few games of solitaire as she waited.

\---

Someone had slipped up. It was just once, whoever it was had gotten into the employee records list and left a trail. It was a minor mistake that just told Rian someone had gotten in, not where it came from or who it was. That wasn’t ideal, but he took it as a good sign.

Rian had set up a computer on an unprotected network used for guests visiting the palace. Luna’s schedule for the week, an employee list for the event, her guardsmen, some of the software they used to make I.D cards. It was all there, unencrypted and on a public network, and now he knew someone had accessed it. If NH-01987 showed up to the event then he could corner him and get some answers.

\---

“I’m starting on the basement level.” Cindy said through the comms.

“It might not be down there.” Biggs replied. “This place is almost completely vertical, it could be on almost any level and still kill loads of people.”

“The top level would be the easiest to plant.” Prompto pulled on the white jacket of the guard’s uniform. “Hell it might still be outside with whoever’s trying to smuggle it in.”

“It’s a terrorist attack. They’re gonna wanna take out as many people as possible ya’ll. Taking the whole place down is the easiest way to do that.”

“If that information we got was for them then it would be easier to get it down there. But it’ll have to be pretty big to blow through the foundation. Don’t spend too long searching, if it’s down there it’ll be obvious.”

“Yessir.”

“Prompto.” Aranea said. “Status.”

“I’m on the first floor. They’re leading her in now.”

“Good, everything checks out on floor 3. That’s where they’re bringing her.”

He watched them lead Luna up the stairs in a swarm of guards and attendants. Lights flashed from the paparazzi cameras and people pressed as close as they could to see her. Ravus came by next, his entrance even more rushed than Luna’s. He martched in passed the people before anyone could get a good look at him and hurried up the stairs. When they were safely upstairs the room quieted and people began getting in line with tickets in hand. Prompto flashed his I.D and the guards at the stairs let him go up without a fuss.

“I found it ya’ll.” Cindy said as he followed the path up to the third floor. “It is big. Timer says we got almost two hours.”

“Right when they come back from intermission.” Biggs filled in. “So that’ll be our only window. We can’t take her during the first act or they might decide to disable the bomb.”

“That’s only fifteen minutes Prompto.” Aranea said. “I’m going to clear the path to the car.”

The line went dead. Prompto acted busy as the room filled up and the band got into place. He could see the seats filling from a window in the empty office of one of the composer’s. They had time to prepare.

He helped Aranea clear the few guards that covered the emergency stairwell down to the first floor. Bigg’s parked the car near the exit. Cindy hid at the bottom of the stairs as backup. He then took out the two guards in Luna’s room and hid them in the adjoining bathroom. For the first hour things went smoothly.

A man came up to the room as Prompto finished his last sweep of the path to the car. He was relatively tall with a familiar face that Prompto recognized immediately even as he struggled to recall a name.

When he’d first started out he had worked recon and information. Like every new kid he’d been paired up with a variety of more senior members to learn how to work in the field. He’d only worked twice with this man, both simple missions in Niflheim. They’d lost touch, as was normal, so Prompto was shocked to see him here. Did The Organization know what they’d planned and decide to intervene?

“Guard Prompto?” The man said. “I am the spymaster Rian, a word if you don’t mind? Please follow me.”

Pieces fell into place as he was led to an empty room on the other side of the building. Rian was the name of the Niflheim agent stationed in Tenebrae according to the NOC-list found at Brutus. So Rian must’ve left The Organization and gone on to work for Niflheim. Prompto didn’t know how common a move that was, but there hadn’t been a kill order for Rian since Prompto had started so if Rian left it was with approval from the council.

But that didn’t matter because Rian was the mole for the terrorists. He had to be. Niflheim would win any conflict had with Tenebrae especially if they were the ones who spurred it. Lucis might jump in to help, but Niflheim’s power and influence far outstripped anything the two nations could throw at them. The bomb was already set. The conflict would happen no matter what. All he could do is save Luna.

“I wanted to ask you a few questions.” Rian locked the door behind them both. Sealing them in the office.

He didn’t get a chance to ask. Prompto pulled out his knife, turned, and stabbed the blade into Rian’s ribs.

Rian reacted like most, a moment of shock before the struggle. He kicked out and tried to pull the knife from his chest but Prompto twisted it and twisted it until blood flowed freely to the ground. No one heard his screams in the soundproof room behind the band’s crescendo.

“I found the mole you guys.” Prompto said as the last of life bled from Rian’s body. “He’s dead. I’m hiding the body now.”

“Who was it?” Biggs asked.

“The spymaster. Rian. He was planted here by Niflheim.”

“Damn. Wouldn’t think even Niflheim would go so far as to kill the Oracle.”

“Are we sure he’s the mole hun? I’m sure Niflheim has more fingers in this pudding then just a lonely spymaster.” Cindy asked.

“There’s too many what ifs to deal with right now.” He pushed Rian’s body under the desk. “How much time?”

“Twenty minutes.”

\---

Her seat was overstuffed and had a little motor on the side that allowed it to recline. She adjusted the seat until her feet were up and she could seat comfortably back. An attendant brought her a very strong martini flavored with lemon and sugar. A clarinetist on the stage looked nervous as he sat and waited for the conductor to finish his speech, and she decided to play a game. Everytime he looked flustered or nervous she would take a sip of her drink.

By the time the conductor waved his hand to signal the end of the first act she had finished two martini’s and had asked for a third. Her feet felt wobbly as she put weight on them. Slowly she put one foot in front of another and hoped that she didn’t look as dizzy as she felt.

She collapsed on the lounge in her private room and toed off her shoes. They tumbled under the chair, but she had fifteen minutes before she had to worry about that. For now she just wanted to rest after the trial of getting up three flights of stairs in heels.

“Miss.” Someone said, she ignored them. “Lady Lunafreya.”

A hand on her shoulder shook her until she lifted her head.

“Lady Lunafreya we have to move.” The guard said. He pulled her arm until she was on her bare feet and began pulling her towards an exit.

“Where are we going?” Her voice sounded steady to her ears, but she failed to notice the hall empty of her guards.

“We have to leave now.”

“Why? What’s going on?”

There was an urgency and wrongness with the guard that quickly sobered her up as they descended the stairs, and she realized quite suddenly that she didn’t recognize this man at all.

“Wait, stop! Who are you. Where’s Ravus?”

“It’s me.” The man said. “I’m the guy who wrote to you through the bond.”

Her stomach dropped and she screamed.

\---

He thought things would go smoothly, but they instead quickly, and utterly, fell apart.

Luna’s screaming would soon draw attention, but he couldn’t get her to stop between her struggling. She’d pulled from his grip and began swinging her fists wildly, falling on her back in an attempt to get away. When he tried to grab her she began kicking at him getting a solid strike against his stomach that left him breathless in the struggle.

“What the shit is going on!?” Biggs yelled in the mic.

“Not now!” Cindy yelled. She was at his side in a flash, yanking off her belt and wrapping it around Luna’s mouth. The screaming stopped, but it was already too late for that.

“What’s going on in there!” A theater guard yelled. Prompto grabbed a knife and threw it down way. The sharp end embedded itself between his eyes with ease.

“Come on! Come on!” Cindy yelled. She struck the side of Luna’s head and the struggling stopped. That would only buy them a few moments at best so they carried her the rest of the way and quickly put her in the trunk of the car.

Biggs floored it the second they both closed the door, breaking several traffic laws as he put distance between them and the bomb.

They left the downtown area just as the explosion went off, rocking the streets and causing traffic to come to a sudden and complete stop. Biggs took a sharp turn down a backstreet through a residential area to get to the freeway.

“Hey.” Aranea said, as panic subsided and the car was filled with an uneasy calmness. “Guess you still haven’t done a rescue, cause this was definitely a kidnapping.”

“...Thanks Aranea.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check me out at ithinkicanwritesometimes on tumblr.


	6. The Home in The Mountains

Every hour or so a rapping would come from the trunk as they drove from Tenebrae and up to the mountains. Luna would bang at the trunk and scream for them to let her go, but no one in the car could even bother to acknowledge it. As much as it pained Prompto to hear her struggle, leaving her back there was the easiest option. The weather held long enough to get the car halfway up on the, but they eventually had to abandon it on the side of the road and retrieve their snowmobiles and get the rest of the way up.

“Alright, rise and shine princess.” Aranea opened the trunk. Immediately Luna started swinging even though she was too weak and tired for it to be effective. Aranea pulled her out of the car by her arm to drag her towards the snowmobile parked a few feet away, but Luna screamed and cursed as she struggled until finally Aranea threw her to the ground and said, “Look you can either cooperate or not. But you’re getting up that mountain either way.”

Luna glared up through a bruised face, but heeded the warning. She rode up with Aranea in her silk dress, shoeless. By the time they made it to the top whatever skin that had been bared was red and cracked from the wind.

She was dumped in a spare room that The Fury’s sometimes slept in when they stayed. Aranea slammed the door shut then turned to him and said.

“We’re in deep shit Prompto.”

\---

At noon Noctis finally managed to drag himself out of bed when his growling stomach refused to allow him any more rest. He slowly slipped from his bed and reached his arms up in the air until he heard the familiar popping sound from his back, then twist his torso until another popping sound was heard. Feeling relaxed he put on an old sweatshirt then headed out of his room.

No one was around to watch his midday walk of shame down the hall towards the kitchens where lunch was just being spread out for his father by a variety of servants. Baked bread, fresh fruit, some roasted meats. Noctis looked them over and thought of maybe making himself a sandwich to take back with him to his room when he caught his father’s eye.

Regis looked more stressed than what was typical of him at noon. There was an extra line across his forehead and his frown sat deep in his face.

“Noctis.” He said, “Please sit down.”

He did.

When Regis seemed confident Noctis would stay he sat forward and said, “I have news about Luna.”

\---

“What do princesses eat?” He muttered to himself as he looked through the fridge. Most of what they had was canned, frozen, or dried, but Aranea had some cured meat in the fridge and Cindy was stress baking six loaves of bread so they certainly wouldn’t starve.

“They probably eat gold bars and exotic animal sandwiches.” Aranea said from the couch as news of the attack flashed on the T.V screen. Biggs had left, but he would likely be back the next day. If not him then certainly Claire or Wedge would stop by.

“Let’s make her some cookies. That always makes me feel better.” Cindy said, “Where’s the sugar?”

“At the store.” Aranea said.

“You two live on top of this mountain and you don’t stockpile sugar? What if you wanted to make sweets or hot cocoa?”

“We don’t.”

“Well then I guess I’ll have to go get some before the storm hits. Ya’ll’ll need it.”

“You don’t have to get -” Aranea started to say, but the sound of the door slamming shut interrupted her.

“I’m just going to make her a sandwich…” Prompto said.

“Fine.” Aranea stood up and cornered him in the kitchen. “Give it to me I’ll give it to her.”

Prompto pressed the salami to his chest, playing keep away from Aranea’s outstretched hand. “Why? What’re you gonna do to her?”

“Nothing!” She made a grab for it, but he turned away. “Prompto give it!”

“You’re gonna hurt her!”

“No I’m not! Don’t you think she might feel threatened when you walk in?”

“You threatened her on the ride up I don’t think she wants to see either of us.”

“A man less of all.” She jammed her hand under his arms and yanked the package from his grasp. “Use your head stupid. She doesn’t want to be left alone with some strange guy.”

“I’m not gonna do anything to her!”

“She doesn’t know that.” Aranea grabbed a loaf of bread and a plate to put the food on. “It’ll go smoother if I do it. Just sit down and wait for Cindy.”

He sat and pouted on the couch as Aranea went to the room with the food. After a moment he heard talking, too low to really understand, then a short scream and the unmistakable impact of a slap. Aranea returned looking significantly more pissed than when she entered.

“Yeah, that sounded smooth.”

“She was trying to use an old pen.” Aranea said, she dumped three of them in the trash. “None of them worked though.”

Prompto wanted to protest this. Luna might be more comfortable if she was able to talk to Noctis, but she would reveal their location if she did. A rescue would quickly be staged and they’d have two separate militaries on their mountaintop by the end of the day.

“We’re probably gonna have to move after this.”

“Yup.”

“Damn, and I was liking it here.”

\---

When Noctis woke up in his bed, the sky outside was dark and a few stars could be seen past the light pollution. Someone had tucked him into bed and tidied up his room a bit, but there was no mistaking the tacky, swollen feeling of his face or forgetting the news his father had delivered.

Like that afternoon he slipped out of bed and rose, this time unsteadily, to his feet. The act of walking seemed taxing and complicated as he tried to process the bombing, the terrorists, and the kidnapping. His brain didn’t know what to focus on, and flitted between thoughts as it desperately tried to deal with the overwhelming emotions he’d felt since he heard.

Then his brain suddenly paused, and he realized he knew exactly who was to blame, who exactly had to have done all this. He hurried to his bedside drawer where he fished for a pen, and found one under a notebook. He jabbed the pen in his arm hard enough to sting as he wrote out his message.

**Where is she?**

He dropped the pen and waited.

\---

Cindy came back close to midnight with several pounds worth of sugar, a pound of cinnamon, two pounds of chocolate chips, and pound of molasses. Prompto helped her unload while Biggs checked the news.

“Ravus was escorted to the E.R.” He said. “Lost an arm.”

“Great. Who wants to tell her?”

“Tell her with cookies.” Cindy dumped a stick of butter into a bowl with some sugar. “Give me half an hour.”

“Yeah I can’t wait to go into that room with a plate of cookies and be like, your brother almost died but it’s okay cause he just lost an arm instead here have an oatmeal raisin.”

“I’m not making oatmeal raisin bird-butt, you’re trying to woo her not disgust her.”

“Hey!” Biggs said, “Don’t talk shit about my oatmeal raisin.”

“I will! Oatmeal raisin is Bahamut’s punishment unto us. They are worse than blood pudding, then bad sex! I wouldn’t eat an oatmeal raisin if I spent the week starving.”

“Listen here you bitch-!”

Prompto retreated to his room before they could drag him into the fight. On the way he passed by Luna’s temporary room and put an ear to the door, but he couldn’t hear anything through the wood.

He busied himself in his room with _Crystal Thrones_ volume 4, and thought maybe that Luna would appreciate him bringing them over. But after the events of the day, he had his doubts. Would his knowledge of her be creepy? His internal Cindy told him no, she might appreciate the distraction, but internal Aranea called him a dumbass and told him to let her stew. There was nothing that would make her feel better.

As he opened the book something caught his attention. Under the sleeve of his thermal he caught a stip of ink in the shape of an ‘e’. He pulled his sleeve back and read the words clearly written by Noctis and felt his heart skip a beat. Neither of them had written to him before, granted that was for good reason, but he felt excited at seeing the words on his skin even if the circumstances weren’t great.

He pondered what to say. What could he say to Noctis that would make everything better, could he say something that would make him feel better? He grabbed a marker from the pocket of his discarded jeans and decided to go for it.

_Safe_

A response formed almost immediately.

**Bring her back what the fuck’s wrong with you?**

_Can’t yet._ He wrote, then thought a moment before adding: _The attack wasn’t me._

 **Who was it then?** Came the immediate reply.

_Terrorists_

**No shit asshole**

_I’m not a terrorist_

**You’re a kidnapper**

_I didn’t have many other options it was going to happen either way_

**You could have stopped it**

_No I couldn’t_

Prompto waited for a while after that but a response didn’t come. He stared at the ink he’d put down and wondered how it came off to someone with no information, no facts. Would it be reassuring? Maybe there was no way for this situation to be a good one.

He pulled his sleeve down and went back to the kitchen where Cindy had pulled the first batch of cookies out of the oven and set them on a cooling rack. Biggs was sleeping on the couch and Aranea had retreated to her room for the night. The drone of Cindy’s country music grated on a nerve, but they were all stressed so he didn’t say anything.

“Hey sunshine. Why don’t ya take these to Luna? Might make her feel better. Maybe some clothes too while yer at it.”

“I don’t know Cindy, I think she might need a night to cool off.”

“Well she ain’t gonna sleep well if she’s still in that dress and hungry.”

Cindy made an unfortunate point that he unwillingly acted on. He piled a plate high with the cookies, took some pajamas from Aranea’s room, and grabbed at book from the Crystal Thrones series hidden in his room. He paused for a moment outside of her room to mentally prepare himself, take a deep breath and think of what she might ask and what he could say. That didn’t help him, however, so he ignored it all and pushed open the door.

The lamp came sailing, and he had just a moment to move his head before it connected. It flew past his head at an impressive speed before shattering on the wall on the far wall, likely waking up everyone in the house.

Luna glared at him, then turned her head and refused to face him. She was huddled on the bed, knees tucked in under her chin. Her dress had been torn on the way here and her hair pulled from it’s elaborate updo to hang messily in front of her face. There were bags under her eyes, blisters on her arms, and scars on her skin. She looked the definition of kidnapped.

“Hey…” He said slowly. “I just brought you some stuff.” He set them on the floor several paces away, like offering food to a hungry jaguar. The plate Aranea brought up had been knocked to the ground. He picked it up and quickly retreated.

“Did you remember to tell her about Ravus?” Cindy said outside.

“No Cindy.” He threw the food in the trash, she gave an unimpressed hum but said nothing.

\---

Luna rubbed at the words on her arm. It was reassuring to see that Noctis was looking for her, but that was the only comfort she could find in the exchange. She didn’t buy into this guy’s story for a second. Why should she? There had been no warning, they’d taken her from her home to this unfamiliar mountain and hurt her. That wasn’t the actions of some brave knight, he was a crazed stalker at best.

She tugged the sleeve of her dress down until it covered most of the writing as her eyes wandered around once again looking for a clock that would not be there. It was difficult to tell how long she’d been stuck here. The woman had come in and took the pens she’d found around midday, but it quickly darkened as clouds covered the sky. She felt like it had been years with how every part of her body was sore and tired. If she could sleep she would’ve, but when she tried lying down on the bed she failed to even nap. As stressful and terrifying the day had been it didn’t feel like it was over.

The window was locked. She had looked out through it several times to see if she could make it far after breaking through, but that clearly would not happen. Outside was a path that was narrow and precarious, and she didn’t have anything that would protect her against the snow or help her get down a slick mountainside.

She didn’t have the option of freeing herself, at least not yet. The realization made her spine seize up painfully, and her throat twist. She had to wonder how long she would be here? What were the odds of them killing her? She’d never thought she’d fear death, but the realization that she might have to face it sat in her stomach and made her feel sick. She wasn’t ready for any of this.

The door swung open and she jumped, grabbing at the lamp on the bedside table and throwing it before thinking. It missed it’s target and smashed on the wall just passed the man, her kidnapper, standing in the doorway. Anger welled up inside her until she felt tears form and she had to turn her head away. She blocked out his words by mentally reciting passages from The Tales of Medea until the door closed and she was left alone with her thoughts.

On the floor he’d left some clothes, a thick book, and some cookies. She wanted to refuse all of them, but the clothes were a thick flannel and she changed into them to stave off the chill. Her stomach lurched at the thought of eating the cookies so she kicked them aside.

The book was the second volume from _Crystal Thrones_. She picked it up and flipped through the dog eared pages. The thought that he’d been observing them all this time, learning more about them while they lived their lives flitted through her mind and on an impulse she turned and threw the book at the closed door. It impacted at an angle then dropped to the floor with an unsatisfying thud.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I typically like to let people read and not worry about comments, but everyone's so quiet I'm kind of worried I'm slowly losing people.
> 
> Do ya'll need anything? An explanation, exposition, some snacks, a condom? Or is everyone good?


	7. Bonding Experience

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So thanks to everyone who commented on the last chapter. I'm normally content to lurk and let lurk, but given the fact that I want a spy/thriller type work I was worried that the twists and turns were coming out of left field. That's thankfully not the case. If it does become the case let me know cause sometimes I even miss details that I've established, or I spend so much time with this thing in my head that I don't know how to convey it to an audience.
> 
> On another note: this work finally has the highest stats out of anything I've posted. The last thing with the highest stats was a oneshot I did for one of those pairing weeks last year. It took me an hour to write and I 100% do not understand why it was so popular so I was very happy to see it get knocked down a peg. Thanks for that everyone!

The wind rocked the house as snow piled at the door. It would be a long one according to the news, but definitely not the longest hit their home.

He woke up to find Claire had come up right before the snow began to fall. She slept that night in the rafters and joined them all for breakfast the next morning. Cindy was at the stove making pancakes with different kinds of jam, Biggs had sat down to his second cup of coffee, all while Aranea played some racing game on the TV.

“You wanna take this up to her highness?” Cindy held the plate of plain pancakes out to him. He refused to take it until she finally gave up and walked past him. “She ain't gonna bite you know.”

He shrugged. That wasn’t a given, especially after last night, but either way he was too tired to deal with his problems at that moment.

“I told her she can come out whenever she wants.” Cindy said when she came back. “Poor thing was starvin’.”

“Saves us from having to give her bathroom breaks.” Biggs said as he powered up his computer. “Think she’ll try to run?”

“Please, in that storm? She’s too smart for that.”

“Yeah, but maybe we should lock her window?”

“Absolutely not, this wasn’t supposed to be a kidnapping.”

“Oh please, it was doomed to be a kidnapping.” Aranea said. “We should just have some fun and do some water torture.”

“Let’s dangle her from the summit.” Claire said.

“What the actual fuck you guys?” Prompto said.

“We’re just joking.”

“You’re only half joking.” He grabbed a stack of blueberry and fled before he had to hear anymore.

In the hallway Luna was peeking her head out from her doorway. When she saw him her face twisted into a glare, but didn’t retreat.

“Bathroom’s on the right.” He said. Her eyes narrowed, but she shuffled down the hall and through the door without comment.

In his room he scarfed down pancakes while searching for his camera. He didn’t get the chance to take pictures often so he wanted to go out if there was a break in the storm and take a few.

A knock on his door. “Sunshine?”

“Come in.”

Cindy slowly entered his room, closing his door behind her. “So we need to tell her.”

“Tell her what?”

“About her brother.”

“So tell her.”

“Don’t you think you should?”

“No, I think she’ll be happier hearing it literally from anyone else.”

“Come on Sunshine don’t be like that. If you wanna help her you gotta communicate with her, help her through this. She’s hurtin’ in there.”

He sighed, “Why are you acting like I can help? I’m like the boogieman to her.”

“Oh please, she’s got a lot more spine than you give her credit for. She’s lashin’ out cause she’s scared, and she’ll feel better if someone talks to her. Do you want me to go in with you?”

“Cindy you punched her in the face.”

She shrugged, “I’ve punched you in the face too.”

“... Alright let’s go.”

Luna had retreated to her room. He and Cindy raided Aranea’s room and the stockpile of clothing The Fury’s had accidentally left over the years. She pulled a few more flannel pants, some concert T-shirts, and a large, thick jacket that had to have been Wedge’s. They then went up and knocked on her door.

“We’re coming in honey.” Cindy said. She slowly pushed the door open.

Inside Luna was on the bed reading the book he’d given her with a great deal of concentration he would not expect of someone who’d read it six times already.

“We brought you more clothing.” Cindy set them down on the desk. “How ya holdin’ up?”

“I’m fine.” Luna barked.

“That’s great because we have some news.” She sat down in the chair at the desk then pointedly looked at him until he caught on that it was his turn to speak.

“The bombing at the theater was a terrorist attack…” He said slowly.

“I know. You told Noctis.” Her face was displeased as she looked up, and Prompto struggled to find the words with the way she looked at him.

“The client didn’t pay the full hush fee.” Cindy said, which surprised him. A hush fee was charged to keep things under wraps, the more a client spent the less info the contractor could give to handler’s and the less handler’s could give to agents and the higher ranking the contract became. “Only paid for the name to be redacted.”

“What?” Luna said, eyes squarely on Cindy.

“Basically.” He said, the words flowed more freely now that he knew nothing was really off limits. “The terrorist group was a Niflheim based one. They’d mostly been attacking Lucis, but someone arranged for them to attack Tenebrae. Likely to incite some sort of response.”

“And you don’t have a name.”

Prompto shrugged, “You’d know better than us right now. It would be anyone who would have an interest in a conflict.”

“Well that doesn’t help me at all.” She threw the book on the bed. “Are we done?”

Cindy glanced to him, and he silently pleaded with her. “Not all sweetie.” She said, “We have news on your brother.”

That caught her attention. Almost instantly all anger was gone, and she looked almost scared. Maybe apprehensive was the better word.

“He’s alive.” She said quickly. “He lost his arm, but the news said he’s recovering well.”

Luna didn’t say anything for a long moment. Her eyes had focused somewhere closer to the floor and she had bit her lip.

“I would like to be left alone.” She said quietly.

He and Cindy rushed out the door and out into the relatively quiet living area.

“Well.” Cindy said. “It could’ve gone worse.”

\---

A steady beeping from the heart monitor had kept him up all night, but the nurses refused to turn it off or find some way to mute it in the case of an emergency. When their grandfather had spent a week in the hospital a scant year before his death he’d complained to his father that hospitals were for recovery, not sleeping. Ravus understood why now.

It was surprising to wake up in a hospital. He’d tried to move out of his bed, but his body was too sluggish and heavy to move from that spot and he’d ended up sleeping soon after waking. This happened a few times from what he could remember until he was suddenly very awake. Outside the sun was high and nearby a nurse was checking his charts. She only turned to face him when the heart monitor’s beeping changed.

“Good morning your highness. How are you feeling?” The nurse said.

“Fine.” He slurred. The nurse noted that down on his chart. “What happened?”

“You’re in the hospital.” She said, not at all answering the question he’d asked. “Can you look at the pen for me?” She held out her pen moved it left and right. He humored her until she pulled it back and returned to her charts. “I’ve been instructed to let a man named Mathis Boucher in when you’ve woken up, said he recently promoted to your personal guard. Do you feel ready to see him?”

“Yes.” He said immediately.

The woman left to get Mathis, one of his personal guardsmen. A few minutes later he stepped through the door and sat down at his bedside.

“Mathis what the fuck happened?”

\---

At eight in the morning Noctis went downstairs to the kitchen area. The kitchens had laid out breakfast, another assortment of fruits along with sliced ham and toast. The usual fair. His father had been about to dig into his soft boiled eggs when Noctis came in. He would have felt amused at the look of surprise if the situation did weigh heavily on his body.

“I wasn’t expecting you.” Regis said as he sat down.

“I know.” He said. Someone brought him out some coffee but the smell of it made him feel sick. He pushed it away and said, “Dad I need to tell you something.”

Regis nodded, and politely waited through the silence as he struggled to find his voice.

“A while ago someone else wrote to us.” He said, “A third person we didn’t know about. They killed Lord Byron after Luna complained about him and I think they’re the one who has her.”

\---

At seven Cindy turned the burner off from under the stew and gave it a quick stir. Most everyone was busy watching the final ten minutes of the movie so she filled up a bowl and had him take it to Luna while they were distracted.

He walked down the hall and knocked on her door. After a moment he heard a faint “come in” and opened the door.

She was lying on the bed staring up at the ceiling. Her gaze stayed squarely on the knob of dark wood so he left the food on the desk for her to get at when she wanted.

“Hey.” She said, before he could leave. “What’s your name?”

“NH-01987.” He said. Her eyebrows furrowed and she finally turned to look at him.

“That’s not a name.”

“Everyone calls me Prompto.”

“Is that your code name?”

Technically yes. “Just a nickname.”

“Oh.” She sat up. “Why didn’t you save Ravus too? If you knew the attack was going to happen?”

He shrugged, “We didn’t really think of it. The operation wasn’t exactly official.”

“I see.” She said. For a moment he thought the questions might be over, but then she said, “How long do you plan on keeping me here?”

“Until the storm passes.”

“How long until that?”

“A little over a week.”

“Great. Will I be allowed to take a shower in that time?”

“You can tomorrow. Two people have already gone and we don’t want to tax the pipes.”

“Will it have hot water?”

“We’re on a mountain during a snowstorm.”

Luna sighed, “I see. Thank you.”

He turned to retreat, but paused before he could shut the door. “You know you can come out any time you want. We don’t want to hurt you.”

“But you did hurt me.”

“Yeah well… sorry about that. We won’t do it again for what that’s worth.”

“Glad to hear it.” She said dryly. He shut the door and returned to movie night.

\---

The next morning he woke up to find Luna in the kitchen chatting with Cindy, the only other person who would be up before nine during a snowstorm.

“I loved that movie.” Cindy said. Neither of them looked up as he approached and grabbed a plate of toast and boiled eggs. “Victor was such a handsome man before the addiction.”

“My friends at school used to have pictures of him in their lockers. Grizzell used to kiss it every morning before first period started.”

“I remember a boy snuck a picture of him in his trunk. He showed it to me one day, but one of the sisters saw us and took it from him.”

Prompto went to his room with his food and didn’t leave until he heard the others get up. When he went back Biggs had started playing some cartoons on the TV. Luna had retreated to her room once again and didn’t leave for the rest of the day, which went unacknowledged by everyone but Cindy who nudged him and winked when he brought some grilled chicken and rice to her room.

The following day she spent several hours in an intense chess game with Biggs. They both stopped to take breaks for fifteen minutes every hour, and an hour break for lunch. The game ended at six when Claire accidentally tripped over some oil Cindy spilled on the ground while making dinner and knocked the table over.

Claire let her have the T.V the following day to watch the news. It was the same news cycle: speculation on her whereabouts, a minor update on her brother, a quick interview with a spokesperson from the Citadel noting how broken up Noctis was over Luna’s disappearance. None of it seemed to surprise her too much. He wondered if she was picking up on some behind the scene details from what little the news actually reported on. Surely Noctis wasn’t so fragile that Luna’s disappearance could practically bedridden him?

Early on day six there was a break in the weather, a sort of calm that would likely last for an hour or so until the storm picked back up again. He left his room to grab his jacket and there she was in the living room watching the news once again. They were droning on with an update on Ravus’ condition, noting that he’d been moved from the hospital back to the castle to finish his recovery. Luna’s head snapped up when she caught him out the corner of her eye.

“I thought we couldn’t leave because of the storm.” She accused.

“I’m not leaving.” He said, “It’ll be calm for an hour or so and I wanted to take pictures. You can come if you want.”

“Hmmm. Alright. Do you have a jacket?”

“Seriously?”

“Yes, I don’t like being cooped up in a house like this.” She hopped off the couch. “Is there a jacket?”

He found an old one Cindy left behind and some snowboots that didn’t fit her quite right. When his back was turned she grabbed a jar of pickles from the shelf, which he ignored mostly out of respect. Snow fell inside after he opened the door, but they would deal with it later when they got back. The powder went up to his knees and was dense. They both had difficulties walking the twenty steps to the edge of the nearby overlook.

There had to be at least a hundred pictures on his hard drive taken from the overlook, but he found it therapeutic to experiment with new lenses or just to see if he could find anything new. This would probably be the last chance he had to do it before they had to leave again.

“It is nice.” Luna said, “When it’s not storming at least.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna miss it.”

“Miss here? Are you not allowed to stay in one place too long?”

“Not necessarily.” He zoomed in on a bunny struggling through the powder. “Technically since you’ve been up here this safehouse is compromised.”

“Really? But I don’t know where we are.”

“Well you know more than you think. It was a day’s drive from the theater, you know the recent weather patterns, you know it’s in the mountains, you saw part of the road at the base. It wouldn’t be too long before they found it.”

“I suppose so.”

She sat down, and for a while the only sound was the wind and the occasional click of his camera. He kept an eye on the sky, if things got dicey they’d have to hurry back.

“You know I don’t know much about you.” She said.

He glanced at her, but her eyes were on the horizon. “Do you want to know something about me?”

“Yes. You know an awful lot about us. Why haven’t you ever spoken to us?”

“At The Compound we weren’t allowed to speak to our soulmates.” He said, “If a sister caught you it was at least twenty lashings.”

“Did you ever want to?”

“To be honest I don’t think I paid much attention to you two. I had some shit I needed to deal with.”

“Like what?”

“Don’t you want to know something else?” He said hurriedly. “Maybe something that’s not on a classified file somewhere?”

“Okay…” She hummed as she took a moment to think. “Who was your first crush?”

“Gal Fierra.”

“The ice skater?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah she’s hot.”

“Who was yours?”

“Coco Beaumont. She came to personally greet me at a fitting when I was twelve and I bought only her dresses until I turned seventeen.”

“How did Noctis feel about that?”

“He was jealous. Said he’d make me a dress, and then I got a package in the mail with two different curtains sewed together into a tube.”

“Did you wear it?” He joked.

“No. It was ugly, one was yellow and the other was a neon green. I don’t even know where he got them. The palace in Insomnia only has black everything.”

“Well he has those two advisors of his. Probably went with one of them to some random home supply store and bought the first two he saw.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time Gladio convinced him to do something stupid.”

A sudden gust of wind shut them both up. Snow began to fall heavily from the sky.

“Looks like we better head back.”

The wind picked up and the storm resumed as they both hobbled back into the warmth of the house. They both struggled to take their shoes off at the doorway before climbing back inside. The snow at the entrance would soon melt, but Prompto decided to ignore it for as long as he could. Luna tried to shuffle back to her room without a word.

“You’re not going to put the pickles back?” He teased as he stripped his jacket off. Luna looked surprised as she turned towards him.

“You noticed that?”

“Yes, it’s literally my job to notice that. Put ‘em back.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t take it from me.”

“Well, It’s not like you took a knife.”

She pulled the jar from her pockets and returned it, “I didn’t want to accidentally kill you.”

“You don’t have to worry about that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She pulled her jacket off. “Can you not get killed by a knife?”

“No, I’m saying that you couldn’t kill me with a knife.”

“I could absolutely kill you with a knife. How hard could it be, it’s a knife.”

He flopped on the couch. “Alright do it. I’ll wait right here.”

“No. I don’t want to kill you.”

“You can’t kill me.”

He heard her stomp as she headed to her room. “I absolutely could!”

“Whatever you say!’

\---

“I can’t believe you would just keep something like that.” Ignis said once again. Noctis wasn’t counting but he definitely knew this was the seventh time Ignis had said that line. “Who knows what kind of information this person has on you. Do you realize how selfish it is to prioritize your illicit communications over your safety. The safety of both yourself and Lady Lunafreya.”

Noctis rubbed tiny circles into the side of his head as if that would somehow stop the headache. “Yes, I know Ignis. It was dumb, super dumb.”

This sent Ignis into another rant entirely. Noctis had been trying to feed different lines to see which one would stop the talking, but every option only lead to another rant that eventually devolved into questions about his ability to rule and his maturity level. He’d looked over at Gladio, but Gladio shot back an unimpressed look that squashed any hope of him bailing Noctis out of this mess.

“I just hope that she makes it out safely, who knows what she could be going through because of your negligence.”

Noctis bit his lip and ran his hands through his hair. Sure he hadn’t made the best decisions, but he felt like this drilling was almost as much for Ignis’ stress relief as it was to instill whatever lesson he was supposed to be learning. He let himself collapse on the couch as Ignis went into another rant and Gladio changed the channel to the news so that they could watch General Mark declare war on the terrorists who dared kill The Oracle.


	8. Transitions

The storm ended around three A.M, ten days after Luna’s abduction. Prompto woke to find that The Fury’s had already left on their assignment leaving him and Luna alone, which meant a plain breakfast of a few waffles and some Ebony.

“So I think the easiest way for this to go is to drop you off near the castle and you can call someone to come get you.”

Luna poked at her waffles with her fork. “You’re going to sit a couple miles away from the castle and wait for the guards to come get me?”

“No, I was only going to drop you off. But if you want me to I can sit with you.”

“I don’t need you to.” She said stubbornly. “I doubt I’ll be the victim of another kidnapping in such a short span of time.”

Prompto rapped his knuckles on the wooden surface of the table, “Knock on wood.”

It took two days to get back to Tenebrae. The snow had blocked off most major roads and they sat in traffic with many other people trying to get through. The road opened up on day two as they approached the capitol only to slow down once again due to security checks happening at the entrance to the city. Prompto was let in after flashing a quick I.D listing him as a local craftsman while Luna hid in the trunk.

They drove around a little after that, just to be safe. He went through a few residential areas then passed by the park at Luna’s request. When the clock struck midnight he parked the car and escorted Luna to some expensive coffee place in the business district.

“Do you want anything before I go?”

She shook her head, “No. I’m sure I’ll be fine here.”

“Great.” He said, “Stay safe.”

He checked through the rearview mirror as he drove off. The cashier at the cafe had brought out their phone and Luna was dialing as he left.

It was a little sad to drive off without her. He’d felt like they’d bonded on the mountain, but he knew it had to be temporary. A relationship would require more sacrifice then it was worth.

\---

Luna struggled putting the number in for Ravus’ personal line. She’d grown up with contacts programmed in her phone and ended up dialing several wrong numbers in her attempts to reach him. Eventually a different voice answered with a gruff hello.

“Victor? It’s me, Luna.” She said. “I’m at the Starlight cafe.”

“Lady Lunafreya? Stay there.” He said quickly. She heard some muttering on the other end before he returned to say, “Someone will pick you up shortly.”

Two men came in a concealed car arrived and picked her up not ten minutes later. Neither of them said anything on the drive back up home. When they arrived one asked her if she’d needed anything as they attempted to bring her to Victor, but she’d shut them down quickly and declared that she’d go to her room.

They let her be, and she tried going to bed to relieve the exhaustion she felt from the entire ordeal. But she incessantly tossed and turned in her bed until two AM when she gave up all hope of rest and wandered out to search for a landline. Most of them had been disconnected since the castle was modernized, but there were a couple scattered about for the employees to use when they needed to make a call to get work done. She sat on the desk of the head landscapper and dialed Noctis’ personal number, this one even harder then Ravus’ since they almost never called one another in the first place.

It took a few tries, but she eventually heard the click of the call being picked up.

“Mmm, hello?” Noctis said.

“Hello Noctis.”

“Luna?” He said, sounding much more awake. “What happened, where are you calling from?”

“Home. I just got back this evening.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, just a little rattled really.”

“What happened to your kidnapper?”

“He left me at the cafe nearby.” She explained.

“What do you mean he left you?”

“He left me. He took me there and I called my brother.”

“Was it our third bond?” He asked carefully.

“Yes.”

The line went silent for a moment as she let Noctis process this all.

“Luna, I’m so sorry.” Noctis began to say. “I just-”

“Noctis it wasn’t your fault. For what it’s worth he wasn’t evil.”

“Luna he kidnapped you.”

“Yes Noctis I was there.” She said. Noctis made an annoyed noise, which she found refreshing to hear. “I don’t know if I believe him completely, but he’d said that there were terrorists that they couldn’t stop. I preferred him over getting bombed.”

“Sounds like a difficult choice.”

“I did have to think it over a little. Listen I’m tired, and I just wanted to call you. I’ll call you again when I get a new cell phone.”

“Alright, I’m glad you’re safe Luna.”

\---

Getting out of the city was easier than getting in since he didn’t have a kidnapped royal hidden in his trunk. He drove to a small farming village about six hours away before stopping and calling The Organization with a half broken payphone next to a general store.

“A new safehouse has been set up on landform 450-325. A key has been provided under a rock.” The robotic voice said. “Your codename is now out of use, a new one will be made for you within the week. Until then you will be referred to as Agent 87 on all official documentation.”

The line went dead and he sighed. It was his fault for compromising the house so he couldn’t be angry that he had to move, but he did feel disappointed.

He stopped at the diner in town for something that tasted good but sank like lead. After that he climbed back into the car and headed off to his new home.

It was a short drive, but a long boat ride. He had to leave the car at a coastal town and buy a speedboat. It was a small, manual pilot one that he drove along the coast for several hours until he found the small island with a fair sized home. There was a dock and another boat already left there. In the setting sun he could see a few landmarks such as Galden Quay and the island off it’s coast. The sun was warm on his back as he kicked over the many rocks on the shore in search for the keys which he found after twenty minutes of searching.

The inside was fairly spacious. There were two extra bathrooms compared to the old place and another bedroom that they likely would not use. It was barely furnished, unfortunately. There was a table and some chairs, but no bookshelf, TV, or game systems. It would take awhile for him to make this place feel like a home.

He found the bedroom at the top, furthest away from the door and decided it was his. It had a bed and some rough sheets stored in the closet. He collapsed into it and let himself sleep.

The next morning he went out to Galden Quay and felt a keen sense of horror at the prices of even the most basic necessities. He rarely went shopping with Cindy, but he was certain that this was extortion. Unfortunately he didn’t have much of a choice. He bought a pound of all the stables, some canned food, and hauled it all back to his new home.

Aranea arrived a few days later with Claire, Wedge, Biggs, Yuffie, and Cindy in tow. She took one look around and said, “I fucking hate it.”

“Yeah, it ain’t like the mountains that’s for sure.” Cindy said. “But we can make it home again. Just needs a little polishing.”

Yuffie laid down in the empty living area, “I like it. I might stop by more often now.”

“Damn it.” Claire said under her breath, “If you take any of my shit I swear…”

Yuffie laughed, “Of course I’m going to take your stuff. Don’t even try to stop me.”

Claire made an angry grunting noise then stalked to the upper level to claim a room.

\---

They had nothing to go on. Luna’s account was sparse: no name, location, or details. Ravus tried to goad something out of her during her visits, but she was recovering just like he was. For once honor and revenge was the furthest from his mind.

But the incident was bothering her. She had deep bags on her eyes and often would let entire days pass without leaving her room. Sometimes she’d tend to her sylleblossoms, but often she did not. Whatever had happened was eating away at her in a way he didn’t quite understand or even help with.

Mathis’ reports were sparse on the matter. He wasn’t a spymaster, and the agents working under Rian were scattered. Some had yet to report back entirely despite the attack making its way into every news outlet on the continent. Ravus wanted to launch an investigation into the matter, but the chancellor’s in Niflheim unanimously barred him from doing so.

General Mark of Lucis made a surprise visit a week after Luna’s return had been announced. He was in a meeting with some random agent and Mathis, both of whom had to be dismissed to make time for the general.

The general came into his room wearing full plate armor decorated with the seal of Lucis, flanked by several soldiers. Ravus attempted to be polite and greet him, but General Mark sat down right at his bedside without invitation and immediately got to work.

“I will not allow this deed to go unpunished. I have been trying to root out these people for a long time you see, if you could handover all that you have on the incident I will get to work immediately.”

“That is very kind of you.” He said, not making any move to relinquish the sparse notes they’d compiled. “It is nice to see that the crown was willing to send such a force for the sake of The Oracle.”

“I do not come on behalf of the crown but the council.” The General said dramatically, “They wish for this matter to be dealt with swiftly.”

“I wish for the same as well. Please consult with Mathis, he was recently appointed Head of the Guard since Jean’s passing.”

“I will do so at once.” The man stood and exited without being dismissed or making any sort of excuse for his departure. Ravus saw the agent roll her eyes before the door closed. He couldn’t have said it better himself.

\---

Noctis called Luna every day for two weeks, often without having much to say. The military intelligence officers had little luck with their investigation into Luna’s kidnapping, and with the sudden departure of General Mark they likely would stall out entirely. Gladio had worked with them, but his daily updates were often blank which Ignis would dryly comment on as if it were Noctis’ fault.

His father would sigh and shake his head whenever he saw him. Noctis didn’t know if it was disappointment, aggravation, anger, or just stress, but his father refused to talk about it so they were stuck not speaking with one another over meals. Honestly Luna was the only person paying him the time of day.

“Your General Mark arrived.” She said. He heard the clicking as yet another serving of ice cream was scrapped from the bowl. On the TV in his room the news station blared some loud jingle at some breaking news story that he quickly muted.

“Oh good, what’s he doing now?”

“He’s going to look for the terrorists who blew up the theater, but I overheard one of our agents saying that a few of the terrorists already turned up dead so I don’t know why he thinks he needs to do this. Do you have any ideas?”

“No. The army doesn’t report to me or my dad, just the council.” He tossed a crumpled up piece of paper at the waste bin. “He’s been a pain in our ass since he’s been appointed, everywhere he goes he’s causing trouble.”

“Can he do whatever he wants then?”

“No, technically we can challenge anything he does and then the courts decide. But recently they’ve been giving the okay for everything and it’s just been a huge headache. He’s pulled some of the budget from infrastructure to go to research and development. My dad’s been pissed since the vote.”

“Hmmm.” Luna went silent for long enough that Noctis pulled his phone away to make sure it was still connected. He brought it back to his ear.

“Luna?”

“I was thinking about what Prompto said.”

“Who’s that?”

“Our third bondmate.”

“You said you didn’t have his name.”

“I lied.”

“Luna!”

“Just listen to me. He said that someone wanted to incite a conflict with Niflheim.”

“General Mark is an idiot.” He almost yelled. “What would he gain from inciting a war?”

“A seat on their council perhaps?” She said.

The beginnings of a migraine began forming at the top of his head, and he let out a pained groan into the reciever.

“Just something to think about.”

\---

Ravus was walking again by the end of the month, and back to work the week before Christmas. Luna hadn’t noticed the passage of time until her attendant mentioned her usual visit to her grandkids.

“My daughter said that her youngest just learned to walk.” She said, going on and on as she helped Luna water the flowers. Luna didn’t have much to say. It had been a long time since it had been more than just her and Ravus. They’d stopped exchanging gifts years ago after their parents died. She thought that maybe they should change that.

He was adjusting well to the lost limb, but he still had phantom pains in his joints and had to go back in for some minor surgery to fix the way the bone had healed. It would be months before they would approve a prosthetic of any kind and longer still before he could get fitted for a realistic one. She’d heard that the empire had technology for this, but so far they weren’t offering and Ravus wasn’t asking

Two weeks before Christmas she took a quick excursion to the shopping district where her new team of guards were over enthusiastic in their jobs. They had her tell them where she wanted to go so that they could scout it out twenty minutes before she could walk in. Then they all surrounded her as she browsed, scaring off the general public and sapping the general enjoyment she had in shopping.

The day of she presented a custom made jacket with the left sleeve sewn shut at the shoulder for him. She wasn’t sure how this would be received, but he wore it without complaint well into spring.

\---

His father had grown six new gray hairs since the weather began to turn warm, one for each General Mark debacle he had to deal with. The stress of both him and the council as a whole seemed to override any exasperation Regis must’ve had at the reveal of Noctis’ third soulbond since he stopped giving Noctis the silent treatment.

“Have you scheduled a date for the wedding?” His father asked on a rare day off. Noctis had thought he’d be fishing at the lake alone, but his father invited himself along rather than sit in the Citadel to do work. He brought a chair and sat in the shade to enjoy the heat of spring and watch Noctis fish.

“Not yet dad.” He said.

“What is the hold up?”

“We’ve just had a lot on our plate.”

“Is it because of the kidnapping?”

Noctis couldn’t help but sigh.

“Too soon?”

“Luna doesn’t like to talk about it. And the trail went cold. We haven’t brought it up since.”

Regis made a small, understanding noise, but didn’t speak as the tip of the rod bent and Noctis started aggressively reeling in his catch. It ended up being a small trout which he put in the cooler with all it’s friends.

“You know Noctis,” Regis continued as Noctis tossed the line back in. “This isn’t set in stone. Just because this person is bonded with you doesn’t mean you have to think about him.”

“Yeah, but I think Luna does.”

“Affectionately?”

“I wouldn’t call it that. I just think she knows more than she’s telling everyone.”

“Could be that she isn’t ready to talk about it.”

“That’s what I figured.”

“You know Noctis.” His father shifted in his chair, the sure sign that he had a rant he wanted to get to. “Your mother and I weren’t bonded, but we had a happy marriage.”

“Mmhmm.”

“Sometimes you have to follow your heart.”

“I know dad.”

“Are you listening to me?”

“No dad.”

\---

“Good morning Agent Merces.” A female voice said. Prompto sat in his room bouncing a novelty bouncy ball against his wall as he listened. “Today I have some grave news. This will be the last contract you complete for us.”

He frowned and let the ball sail over his head without catching it. “What? Why?”

“The Organization has been compromised. This is an internal contract to tie up loose ends as we disband. Your target is Emilia Florence. She was caught by the Lucian government attempting to take classified Lucien documents out of Insomnia. Thus far that is all they have on her, but we are working on a limited amount of time to contain anything she might leak. She is being held in a high security cell in The Citadel’s basement, give her the standard retirement package. If she refuses an agent has been assigned to clean up so you can leave the body in the cell, but we have no means of providing any other aid. I will leave you to prepare.”

He dropped the little receiver on the floor in shock rather than destroy it like he should. There was no point in keeping it, he couldn’t activate it on his end. But he stared blankly at it as if he could will his handler to call him back.

The ball bounced on the floor with small, little hops. He’d just finished decorating his room with band posters and pictures he’d taken of seashells. Was he going to have to move again? What would he do for work? This was all he’d ever really known.

Downstairs The Fury’s were in much the same boat. All of them were huddled in the living room on the newly purchased couch wondering what to make of the news. Claire looked up at him as he entered and made room for him to sit next to her.

“This isn’t the first time something like this would happen.” Yuffie said, “My old agency disbanded too.”

“Yeah but The Organization was a multi sector group.” Aranea said. “There was cleanup, intel, assassination, sabotage. They can’t completely disband, someone’s going to piece them back together again.”

“But who? I mean, will we want to stay under new management?” Asked Cindy.

“Can’t get much worse than what was there.” Biggs said. “Otherwise we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“I’m gonna call pawpaw.” Cindy stood up, “Ask him if something like this ever happened before.”

Cindy stepped outside and closed the door.

“Hey shortcake.” Aranea said, “Biggs knows of a weapons and development facility nearby. We’re going to stop by there and see what’s up. Wanna go?”

He shook his head, “They got me doing clean up. I’m supposed to retire someone named Emilia.”

“Emilia?” Biggs exclaimed, “Fuck. She was high up there. Been with them for a while. If she was the leak then we’re better off going on our own. No way they’re coming back from that.”

“But they have files on us.” Claire said. “If they want us back they’ll have us back.”

“Not necessarily.” Wedge said, “I’m going to talk to some of my girls at HQ.”

He collected his bag and grabbed a key for one of the speedboats.

“I’ll go with you.” Claire said, “I don’t want some compromised agency running around with my files.”

The two ran off as Cindy came back in.

“Pawpaw wasn’t real helpful. Said this has happened before but didn’t give too many details. He reckons that they’ll be back up within a year, maybe two, and until then we’d better make our own way.”

“Well we could just squat.” Aranea said, “It’s not like we’re poor.”

“That money ain’t gonna last us forever, and if we build up our own network we’re that much more valuable to them if they do reform.”

“I do have some old contacts.” Yuffie said. “I guess I’ll give them a call, see if they have any work for us.”

“That’ll have to do for now.” Aranea said. “We’re probably better off staying together right now.”

Prompto agreed, but he didn’t stick around long to listen to their plan. He needed to get his final mission out of the way.

With no Organization backing Prompto had to find his way to Insomnia on his own. It was kind of fun. For a year after The Compound he did requisition work. It was part of the transition to field work. He would get equipment, transportation, and last minute intel before the real operative showed up, and then confirmed the kill when the operative was complete. It was an easy to fall back on those skills to get a car and some concealable weapons.

The drive to the Crown City was uneventful. A person at the main gate to the city checked his I.D and let him in.

He’d never been to the Crown City before. Their mountain home had been too far away, and The Organization didn’t have as many clients from them. It certainly was beautiful. All of the buildings stretched to the sky and the streets were full of people. He bought a map of the city at a visitor’s kiosk and memorized it while sipping a latte at some cafe.

His next stop was the citadel where he was let in after flashing his fake I.D. The first few floors were open to visitors, and after that he would need some kind of I.D and a uniform. Neither of which would be too hard to find. There were plenty of lower ranking officers keeping watch on the first floors not only in high traffic areas, but also less frequented spots such as random alcoves and halls. A captain stepped out of his office so Prompto picked the lock and waited under the desk. When the captain came back in almost an hour later Prompto knocked him out and took his uniform.

The uniform was similar to most of the guards, so he was able to blend in rather smoothly. He took all the keys the man had on him and searched for an elevator he could take down. It was difficult to locate, an entrance to a prison wouldn’t be in a place the guests could stumble across, and if he spent too long off the beaten trail he would draw suspicion. After a few passes he found a custodial closet none of the janitors seemed to frequent and stepped inside where a button to call the service elevator was attached to the far wall. He pressed it and took the service elevator down.

He got off at basement level two out of six, that was the furthest his keycard was allowed. After some searching he found the warden passing by with another officer and with a little effort snatched the keycard from his belt. That took him to the sixth level of the basement where all the high security prisoners were kept.

There was only one other prisoner. A man bound up with some face collar on. His room was sealed on all sides to block all the noise he made as he kicked and screamed. His feet were bound up, but the wounds on them bled as his struggling opened them.

At the other end sat his target. Emilia was kept in a standard cell with a high security lock. She sat, unbound, in her relatively large cell in a standard issue, white prisoner’s uniform.

“I’m surprised they could afford you. Come to kill me?” She said calmly.

“Not necessarily.” He said. Emilia sat away from the cell walls, but the warden’s keys would get him in if need be. “They’ve called for a retirement.”

“How generous of them.”

“You know how they are.” He said. “Do you accept?

“Do I volunteer to have my tongue cut out and my eyes gouged? No. The flash drive with the files his hidden under a brick on my fireplace.” She walked up and stood at the grate. “Just do it quickly.”

“I brought a syringe of poison.”

“Give it to me.”

He slipped the syringe through the grate and watched as she rolled up her sleeve. She hesitated a moment, then violently plunged the needle into her arm and shoved the plunger down. The vial emptied itself of the few milliliters of poison quickly. When it was empty she ripped the needle from her arm and passed it back.

“It was nice working with you.” He said.

“Smartass.”

Her body dropped as he walked towards the elevator, soon convulsing as the poison attacked nerves and muscles. He pushed the button for first basement level, but the elevator stopped on the second floor. The door’s opened up to reveal the warden, who flashed his handler I.D before Prompto could make a move for his knife.

“Didn’t mean to sneak up on you.” The warden said. He calmly stepped into the lift as Prompto relaxed.

“Could say the same to you.” He pulled out the keycard and moved to hand it over. The warden put his hand up to decline.

“Did she accept?”

“No.”

“Great… just great. Now I have to explain this. General Mark has been riding my ass for the past year as it is.”

“I could kill a few guards.” Prompto said, “Make it look like a struggle? Doctor up the crime scene.”

“That will be great. I’ll owe you one.” He held the door as Prompto got off, “Kill Oscar, he’s a jackass. He’s in the breakroom right now. I’ll get the tapes.”

“Sure.” He gave a little wave as the door closed.

Embellishing a crime scene was easy with enough practice. It wasn’t about covering up a crime so much as it was about putting so much conflicting information down that a solid lead was hard to find. The first was Oscar, Prompto caught him in the breakroom of the first level and left his body in a chair for someone else to find.

Next he let himself into the warden’s office and made off with a few notes made during torture sessions. It was a thin folder with nothing of use, he could see why the general might be unsatisfied.

Finally he sabotaged the alarm system and unlocked the door of a sleeping prisoner in solitary confinement. It was unlikely the prisoner would make it far with the way he’d been withering away, but prison breaks were always a good cover up.

The warden met him at the service elevator. “I erased the camera feed from the past four days, and the log from all the key cards used in the building. The body is also on the way to the incinerator as we speak.”

“Great. Guess you’ve got a cover up. What’re you gonna do now that The Organization’s gone.” He pressed the call button to the elevator.

He shrugged and leaned back against the wall. “This? There are a few of us here. I’m sure we’ll get the call if they reform. You?”

“Fuck if I know.”

“You one of those field agents? The ones always obsessed with the job?”

The elevator opened, “Kinda? To be honest I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”

\---

Summer was in full swing, but the AC kept the heat at bay. Noctis hadn’t left the Citadel since the weather went into the triple digits and he was happy to stay that way. It was one of the few benefits of moving back in.

His workload had been staggering recently. Sometimes he could get a stack of paperwork so tall Ignis needed to make two trips, other times he had to sit and pretend to be busy. All of it was boring. He wasn’t trusted with anything important, and half the time it was a bunch of dry reading and then a signature. There wasn’t a choice to make in where his signature even went, if he rejected something it went back to the council, and often it was such a low priority that half of them didn’t bother to show up and vote.

On the first of June Noctis pulled books on old building codes for a petition to redo the interior gardens at The Citadel. It was part of the busywork his father dumped on his desk before heading into a hearing with both the council and the court judges which began in the morning and had stretched past noon with no recess. Ignis would sometimes step out to check on them, but thus far the hearing had trapped every vaguely important person at The Citadel. The halls were bare barring the occasional maid and the silence had weather even Ignis’ nerves so much so that he’d started playing some music just to fill the air. Everything felt wrong, and it put both him and Ignis on edge.

At three ignis finally took a break for lunch, which meant Noctis could finally take a break from the uneasiness in the air. He slammed the book shut and leaned back in his chair. After spending all day hunched over his desk his back was killing him. He reached his hands up into the air until he heard his spine give out three satisfying pops. He let himself doze for fifteen minutes then reach into his desk for his phone to play Kings Knight.

His door suddenly opened, making him almost drop his phone on the floor. At the entrance was his father, face lined and grim. Noctis quickly pocketed his phone and sat up straight as his father sat heavily in a seat across from his desk.

“What’s up dad?” He gently asked.

“Noctis.” His father sighed, “The council has decided it necessary to go to war with Niflheim."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yaaaaaay who's ready for wartime shenanigans?
> 
> Check me out on ithinkicanwritesometimes on tumblr.


	9. Captain Elliott

War, war never changes. It will always be a profitable mess.

His first assignment with The Fury’s saw him enter an active military base in Lucis just a footstep behind Cindy. Breaking in was familiar, they got in by slipping behind a tanker. Inside was where it got tense. The narrow, metal halls that echoed with every sound. This was a base with very sparse human personnel, getting spotted meant getting in a gunfight between them and the entire base.

It was taking Biggs longer than planned to crack the code to the doors. His eyes darted between the security terminal and the north end of the hallway. Thus far they had been lucky and had only run into a few MT’s patrolling. All of them had gone down quickly and quietly.

“I’m through.” Biggs said through the comms. Cindy hurriedly went to the terminal and created two level one security cards for them. The terminal, thankfully, didn’t announce anything as it spat them out.

Navigating through the base was not easy. They spooked a patrolling MT as they turned the corner to the stairs which could’ve gone bad quickly if he didn’t put a bullet between it’s eyes. The MT fell to the ground and they stashed it under the stairs, but they only had so much time before it’s body was found.

They made their way three floors up to the high security area. The cards opened up the doors without drawing attention. The base had cameras posted every feet that Biggs used to guide them towards the intelligence office.

Intelligence office 145 was what they were looking for. Their cards got them inside to a room filled with paper, videos, photos. All necessary for the operations in the west end of Lucis. Cindy went to the center of the room and began priming the bomb while Prompto stood guard at the doorway.

“Prompto, Aurum.” Biggs said, “Lightning’s taken out her target. She’ll meet you at the rendezvous point.”

“Understood.” Cindy said. Her voice was strained, but her hands were steady as they fixed wires and set up the timer. The display flashed twenty minutes. “Explosive primed.”

She turned and they both rushed down the hall to retrace their steps down towards the entrance. They went down a flight from the third to the second, hitting the bottom as the alarms of the base went off.

“Sounds like they found the body!” Cindy yelled.

They went down the next flight of stairs with a newfound sense of urgency. Another MT had indeed found it’s friend and was searching the area as the rest of the base began lock down. Cindy kicked it into the wall before it could turn around to stop them and they ran on past it.

The base had mobilized quickly. They busted through the door of the facility to the outside yard to see swarms of MT’s and security robots sweeping the area. Without the option of stealth they both made a mad dash for the base walls towards the lines they’d used to drop in. Neither of them had been cut so they used them to climb up, narrowly dodging the beam from a security robot’s laser. Once up they jumped down and out of the base.

They didn’t stow down as they put distance between themselves and the base. Halfway to the rendezvous point, when they could barely hear the sirens, the bomb went off and Biggs voice came back on the line.

“Good work you guys, job complete.”

Both of them stopped to catch their breath when Old Lestallum came into view. Inside town Claire had taken a seat at the Crow’s Nest, their rendezvous point for the mission.

“How’d it go?” She asked. At their booth there were three cups of water and a plate of fries. He reached over and grabbed a handful as Cindy answered.

“It went great. Prompto and I are the perfect team. How’d yours go?”

“As planned. Captain’s dead, so’s his second.” She squeezed mustard on top of half the fries. “Let’s drive back after we eat we’re way too close to that base for comfort. You cool with that Prompto?”

“Sure.”

\---

Days after Lucis’ declaration of war a visitor came to Tenebrae.

Captain Elliott was a tall man with thinning hair and sunken cheeks who was known for making one facial expression no matter the situation. He invited himself in and sat in the lounge with a cup of tea and ordered for them to appear. Ravus appeared fifteen minutes after the Captain sat down, Luna stubbornly took thirty minutes to choose an outfit and fix her hair before she appeared and sat next to her brother across from him.

“We wanted to know what your plans were for this war.” He asked, legs crossed and voice calm as if he were talking about a movie he wanted to see.

“Why would we have plans Captain?” Ravus asked, “Lucis has not declared war with Tenebrae.”

“Oh but they have. Tenebrae is a colony of Niflheim. Ravus, I thought you knew that.”

She saw her brother tense up from the corner of her eye, but her focus remained on Captain Elliott as he set his cup down in his saucer.

“With all due respect.” She said, “We were hoping to see little impact from the war.”

“You are very optimistic.” He held his cup out for a servant to refill. When it was full he took a long sip from it before speaking again. “Since neither of you wish to aid Niflheim we will move you to Gralea. For your protection.”

She and Ravus went silent, which didn’t bother the Captain much. He carried on as if this were a casual tea party.

“On whose orders?” Ravus asked after what felt like hours.

“His Majesty himself.” Elliott set his cup down on the table. “Now if you’ll excuse me I must be off.”

He handed his cup to a maid and left without fanfare. Once he was out the door she turned to talk to Ravus, but he’d quickly left the room as well. A servant gave her a sympathetic look as she cleaned up the dirty tea cups.

For a week she held her breath as she tried to live out her life as usual. Captain Elliott hadn’t shown like she’d thought he would. There had been no army to drag her to Gralea or orders to appear at the capitol. It felt like the silence before the storm, like a predator was getting ready to pounce. Suddenly the small battalion of men her brother assigned to her seemed woefully inadequate.

After two weeks a knock came on her door. She jumped in her seat, half expecting Captain Elliot’s orders to leave.

“Luna, can I come in?” Ravus said.

“Sure.” She said.

He came in looking more downtrodden than in the months after he’d lost his arm. She watched him slowly walk across her room and sit on her bed, feeling dread rise up her stomach.

“Luna.” He said gravely, “The Captain has agreed for you to stay here under increased supervision and no outside contact.”

She crossed from her desk to sit next to him on her bed. “Under what condition?”

“They want me to come work for them.”

“Work for them? Work for them doing what?”

“I would be a commander of some sort, they haven’t given me a rank yet.”

“What about your arm?” She asked gently, “They can’t expect you to fight.”

“They’ve promised that it will be taken care of.”

She reached over and gripped his hand tightly, he squeezed back.

\---

One Saturday evening Noctis selected Luna’s contact info from the list on his phone. He held it up to his ear expecting to hear it dial, but instead heard a robotic, female voice inform him that the number was unavailable. He tried again, but the results were the same.

The next morning he once again tried Luna’s number, then Ravus’. Both times he got the same error. In the afternoon he tried the land line for the castle and navigated through the various options until he heard a voice.

“Hello.” The man said.

“Hi, this is Prince Noctis. Is - “ He heard a click, and then the dial tone.

He contemplated dialing the number again, but he was confident he would get the same result. So he waited until Ignis came by a few hours later to begin dinner.

“Niflheim doesn’t want any interference from us I would assume.” He said grimly, “I imagine they’ve taken their cellphones and are screening their calls.”

Noctis’ stomach clenched. Of course Niflheim would do this, it hadn’t even been a month and they were already pulling out all the stops.

He tried to stay calm. They would lock Luna away, but even Niflheim wouldn’t dare harm the Oracle. He tried to remind himself of that every time he found himself glancing down at his phone hoping to see her call.

A month passed. The worst of the heat was over for the year, and one day after working with his father he pulled off his socks and wrote in the smallest handwriting he could manage:

Are you okay?

\---

Halfway through summer Yuffie had bought several surfboards to celebrate their new home. By the end of September Prompto was the only one who had touched half of them.

He’d started off simple. Surfing on small, calm waves during the day and going back when they got too crazy. He’d been working up to bigger ones, but more often than not he ended up in the water and would have to swim out to grab the board he’d brought. Yuffie had joined him in the beginning, but she’d ended up retreating inside when the weather got too hot.

On a cooler day he stayed out well into the evening, managing a few successful runs since he’d come out that morning. He sat on the porch with a towel trying to get the last bit of sand off his feet before going in when he saw the words form. They were tiny, and a little sloppy, but he could recognize the handwriting even after the year.

His stomach dropped. He thought he was over it, if anyone had asked him an hour ago he would’ve said that he wasn’t worried about what happened to his soulmates. He figured that if Lucis was going to start a war then they could deal with the consequences. But something bad had to have happened to make Noctis put pen to skin again after all this time.

Prompto dried off and headed inside where he found Biggs watching a drama with Yuffie.

“Hey Biggs, do you think you could get me Prince Noctis’ personal number?”

Biggs shrugged, “Sure. After this though.”

“Thanks.”

He took a shower to rinse off all the salt water and by the time he was out Biggs had put the number on the kitchen table.

Wedge had set up a secured line for their home, but without The Organization calling it had barely been used. He took it up to his room and dialed the number.

Noctis didn’t pick up the first time so he waited ten minutes before trying again. The second time also went unanswered, as did the third and fourth. Prompto took another ten minute break to grab a plate of food and bring it up. His call was answered the sixth time.

“Hello?” Came the confused voice.

“Hi. What’s happening with Luna?” He tried to say as kindly as possible. There was a pause as Noctis seemed to process what was asked.

“Who is this?” He demanded.

“Prompto.”

“... Oh you have a lot of nerve calling me!”

“Yes I know. I just want to know what’s happening to her?”

“I’m not telling you anything! How do I know you haven’t kidnapped her again?”

“Because why would I? Was there another terrorist attack recently?”

“I don’t know! What the hell do you want?”

“I just want to know what’s happened to Luna.”

“Why should I tell you?”

“Because maybe I can help her.”

“By kidnapping her again?”

“No! What are you going to do while you sit in your ebony tower, huh? Am I really worse than fucking Niflheim?”

There was a long time where Noctis didn’t speak, long enough that Prompto had to check to make sure the call wasn’t dropped somehow.

“I don’t know what’s happened to her.” Noctis reluctantly said. “I haven’t heard from her in over a month.”

Prompto sighed, “Great. Just great.”

\---

Captain Elliott personally shattered her phone the day after Ravus left to Gralea. She watched the pieces fall to the floor of the study silently.

“It’s for your own protection.” He said. “Best be off to your room my dear.”

There was a laundry list of rules she was given. No wandering outside of the manor without permission, and when she did have permission she had to be accompanied by Niflheim soldiers. She could not make a phone call to anyone, not even Noctis, for fear she would leak information she did not have. All her mail would be picked through and her calls screened. Her personal guards people were sent with Ravus to be assigned elsewhere and replaced with MT’s. Soon there were very few people she recognized left.

Her personal servants and handmaidens were removed from her after a few days when she tried to ask one to call Noctis for her. The maid was caught in the head chef’s personal office trying to dial out, and they were all removed from the manor entirely with the promise that a new team would take their place. That was stalled, however, when Noctis tried to call her.

She spent weeks alone in her room only occasionally leaving for water or food. She caught the message Noctis left on her foot, but could answer. The MT’s had swept through the entire manor and relocated all of the pens to Captain Elliott’s new office. She had successfully been made a prisoner in her own home.

On an unusually cool day she opened her window to get some fresh air. The were still green, but she expected they’d turn in the next few weeks. Down in the gardens MT’s stomped through the pathways with just enough dexterity to not crush anything as the gardner’s got to work. There were decidedly fewer of them working since Captain Elliott kept rotating out the staff.

She looked down just out of curiosity and was surprised to see a familiar face for the first time in a long time.

Cindy was down in the gardens watering a rose bush so casually Luna almost thought that this a case of mistaken identity. Luna tried to get her attention. She waved her arms and tried shooting a few hair ties in her general direction, but none of them hit their target and not once did Cindy look up. Eventually the M.T’s began to notice so she shut the windows and tried to forget about it.

She didn’t get that chance, however. The next day a knock came to her door as she laid in her bed rereading yet another book series.

“Come in.” She said, sitting firmly on her bed. Captain Elliott sometimes liked to visit her, so felt no need to act polite.

The door slowly opened and a girl with black hair creeped inside. Luna didn’t recognize her so she stayed rooted to her spot.

“Lady Lunafreya. I’m Yuffie, I know Prompto.” She said as she began shuffling through her room, opening and closing the drawers to her vanity and her closet.

Luna sat up instantly in alarm. “Prompto? He’s here? What are you doing?”

“Checking for wires.” She shuffled into the bathroom for a moment, “I work with him. What’s been going on? Why hasn’t anyone been able to get in contact with you?”

“Captain Elliot broke my phone when he arrived. He’s taken over the manor.”

Yuffie glanced out the window. “I see.” She ran her hands around the edges of the window then unlocked it. “We’ll get you out then. We’ve already got a plan going.”

“What is it?”

“Tonight, midnight. Wedge can shut the MT’s down, but only for twenty minutes. So you have to be ready to go.”

“My trident has been locked up. I can’t leave without it.”

Yuffie shut the window, “Okay, I’ll see about getting it. Where is it stored, do you know?”

“In the wine cellar I think. I know they have a safe, but I don’t know the type of lock.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Yuffie walked towards her door. “Get ready and keep your window open. Don’t leave this room.”

Yuffie disappeared leaving Luna to prepare. She searched her room until she found a duffel bag she couldn’t recall ever using. The first thing she grabbed was a small pocket knife she’d gotten when she and Noctis had gone camping a few years ago. She changed into a pair of jeans and stuck the knife in her pocket. After that she packed clothes and toiletries until the bag barely zipped.

She scanned her room for anything else that could be of use and found nothing. For a moment she contemplated trying to sneak into the armory downstairs to grab a knife, but she would never get past the MT’s patrolling the halls. So she laid down on her bed and waited.

At first she was so wired, so excited at the thought of being free that she couldn’t help but be jittery. There was no clock in her room so she glanced out of her window to tell the time. Eventually she got tired of that, and was able to fall into a restless sleep for a few hours. When she woke from her impromptu nap the sky was dark. She jumped out of bed and began to pace.

Every time she passed by the window she looked down hoping the image had changed, but every time it was still pitch black with the garden only barely visible in the dark.

Her door clicked making her jump in shock. She grabbed the lamp on her desk to defend herself, but dropped it when she saw that it was only Yuffie. She came in still dressed in the same maid uniform, but with Luna’s trident firmly grasped in her left hand.

“You found it!” She almost yelled.

“Yeah, are you ready?” Yuffie dropped the trident on her bed and pushed the windows open. She scanned the outside much like Luna had, then stepped back seemingly satisfied.

“Yes, when will he come?”

“Soon.” She grabbed Luna’s trident and tossed it to the ground. It made a barely audible sound as it hit the grass. Next Yuffie grabbed her duffle and threw it down much the same. “Stay here.”

Yuffie jumped from her window. She rolled to keep from hurting herself then gathered all the stuff she’d thrown down and ran off. For a moment Luna thought for a second that she’d just been robbed until Prompto, dressed in all black, came running up the side of the manor. He got right under her window then shot a grappling hook up. The hook flew up then latched firmly into the lip of the window, plunging deep enough to damage the paint and leave a clear mark. He scaled up the line to the top.

“Car’s about a mile out.” He reached out for her hand. She grabbed it firmly and let herself be slowly lowered down to safety.

When they touched down she was pulled into a fast run and guided towards the manor gates. She couldn’t see the glowing lights of the MT’s, but she was able to see their faint outlines as they passed. The ones at the gates stayed frozen as they looked out. Some that had been frozen while mid step and laid on the ground. She almost tripped on one as she was led through the gates and out of the manor.

Down the hill the car sat running with Biggs in the driver’s seat and Yuffie in the passenger’s side. Biggs folded up his laptop when he saw them and barely waited for the doors to close before pushing down on the accelerator. The car accelerated quickly enough to force the doors closed and make her head hit the headrest. Her stuff rolled around in the back as the wheels went over rocks and gravel on the drive out.

“Do not get comfortable back there.” Biggs said as he turned off onto the main road towards the highway. “This is going to be close.”

Biggs foot pressed towards the floor and they were speeding down the freeway, passing trucks and cars heading south. Twice she slammed her head at the jerky driving until she wised up and braced herself for when Biggs changed lanes to pass a car. He didn’t slow down or stop until they were in a port city in the far south of Tenebrae when the sun was just beginning to rise.

She and Prompto quickly grabbed her things and boarded a speedboat that was driven in much the same manner by Yuffie. The water splashed around them and she couldn’t say anything over the noise of the engine so she sat in the middle and clutched at a handrail as she watched the scenery around them change. The coast line stayed within sight on their left.

They passed by Cape Caem when the sun was high in the sky and warming the sea. She frowned, but decided she’d comment when they’d stopped. Which they eventually did shortly after they passed by Galdin Quay. Yuffie brought the speedboat to a sudden halt in the dock.

“Yes!” She yelled as she cut the engine. “I’ve successfully kidnapped a princess!”

“Shut the fuck up Yuffie we’ve all kidnapped a princess.” Biggs yelled.

Luna shakily got to her feet and stepped off of the boat onto the unfamiliar dock of the island.

“Didn’t you live on a mountain?” She asked as Biggs and Yuffie bickered.

“Had to move.” He grabbed her stuff then walked past her towards the house. “You know how it is.”

She followed him up the steps into the house and up towards the second floor rooms. He opened a random door to a room with two beds. One half was decorated with green sheets and posters of martial arts movies while the other was bare. He set her stuff on the undecorated side.

“Sorry, but you’ll be sharing with Yuffie this time. Pens are in the drawer. My room’s on the far end of the hall. I’m going to bed.”

He left. Downstairs Yuffie and Biggs were still fighting, and someone had the T.V blasting the cooking channel. It was too loud, much louder than it had ever been in that mountain cabin. The top drawer had a packet of multicolored pens. She pulled out an orange one to write with, but when she laid down to write on her forearm her eyes crossed and her vision became blurry. The pen dragged on her skin, but she didn’t register what she wrote before sleep took her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the alternative titles for this chapter were:
> 
> Luna's Kidnapping 2: Electric Boogaloo
> 
> How to Get Away With Kidnapping
> 
> The Reverse Princess Peach
> 
> D.K.S.M (Designated Kidnapped Soul Mate)
> 
> And many others!
> 
> Also, does anyone have any sort of questions about backstory, motivation, world building, etc.? Someone mentioned The Compound, which I've brought up a few times and will explain in a later chapter as planned, but if there's something else people are curious about I'll either answer it in the comments, on tumblr at ithinkicanwritesometimes (if you ask there) or in a later chapter.


	10. Decisions of a Questionable Nature

It had taken a long time to get used to the heat of the island, which seemed to cloak every surface and pore during the months of July and August. Prompto used to wake up sweating with his sheets kicked off the bed more often than not. The heatwave seemed to have ended, however, while he was in Tenebrae since he woke up that morning without sweat coating the back of his neck. It was so nice, in fact, that he tried to chase the last moments of sleep just a little bit longer until the growling of his stomach pulled him from his bed.

The familiar sight of writing greeted him when he went to brush his teeth. He quickly skimmed through it as he followed his morning routine. Most of it was Noctis checking up on Luna, asking if she was okay and where she was. Thankfully she just relayed that they were on the coast and left it at that.

Noctis had penned a short thank you message on his right bicep. It was sincere little message that he responded to by stealing a purple pen from Yuffie’s room to putting it to the skin at the bottom of his foot. He drew a little doodle of himself in armor carrying Luna from a tower then wrote “Look here” on top of his foot. When that was done he capped the pen and headed downstairs.

Luna was desperately trying to squeeze as much writing as possible on her wrists as she responded to Noctis’ inquiries. She sat at the kitchen table with a half eaten blueberry muffin in front of her while the T.V played some B-rated action movie Yuffie chose.

“Oh how I’ve missed this.” He said half sarcastically as he passed her on his way to the kitchen. “Waking up to you two writing paragraphs on my arm.”

“Aren’t you happy it’s back?” She replied with a grin. “Noctis wrote you a message by the way.”

“I saw. Check your foot.”

He picked through the fridge as she leaned back in her chair and looked at the picture he’d drawn on the bottom of her foot.

“Noctis is already drawing a little mustache on you.”

“Wow, mature.” He found some leftover take out and began heating it up in a pan.

She paused to draw little stars on the heel of her foot.

“So… I’ve never asked, but what is it that you do exactly?’

Prompto shrugged as he started eating his food straight from the pan. “Whatever I’m paid to do really.”

“Oh, so you’re a prostitute?” Luna joked.

“No. Well, I’m not. I don’t know what everyone else does in their free time.”

“I think Biggs grew up in a brothel, but don’t take my word for it.” Yuffie said from the living room.

“Fascinating… why do you ask?”

“Well, I was thinking that I didn’t know exactly what you did. You didn’t seem like terrorists, but you were able to hack the MT’s. And then there’s what happened to Byron.”

“I don’t technically have a title.” He sat down across from her at the table. “I guess you could say I’m an agent.”

“Like James Bond?”

“Sure.”

“Is everyone else here an agent?”

“Pretty much.”

“So what’ve you been doing since the war began? You must’ve been busy?”

“Pretty busy. Honestly Aranea’s the one choosing all of the contracts, I just kinda do whatever she tells me.”

“Does she care where the contacts come from?” Luna asked slowly.

“Not for the right price. But she’ll probably end up picking a side eventually, that’s always what happens.”

“So… how much for her to choose Lucis?”

He shrugged, “You’d have to ask her.”

“Wars are lucrative.” Yuffie stood up from the couch and grabbed the pen Luna had dropped. “Aranea’s got morals, but she can’t stand on them for too long. Eventually both sides will do awful things and it’ll come down to gil.”

Luna frowned. “I guess that’s just the way it is in your line of work.”

Yuffie started doodling a chocobo on the back of her hand, “Kinda. We can’t play both sides forever. If we’re seen as too flighty then they’ll both cut us off. But right now everything’s up in the air and people are paying a lot of gil and not looking too deep. If Lucis wants us it’s just a matter of promising enough money now rather than later.”

Luna glanced between him and Yuffie, her face unreadable. “You know, the politics in Niflheim are tumultuous. There’s a lot of backstabbing and instability.”

“Sounds about right.” He said.

“You might be better off with Lucis, they’re probably safer.” She continued. “If we go straight for the top the entire empire might come crashing down much faster than the military could do.

“Are you really going to push for this? Luna I just rescued you from them and now you’re turning around and running after them again?”

“Prompto they have my brother!” She said. “Please, just think about it?”

He sighed, and grabbed at her hand. She gently squeezed back.

\---

Luna had written a long explanation of the situation on his leg with occasional elaboration by Prompto. Noctis didn’t completely believe it, but it did explain why it had been so difficult to find him.

His hurriedly pulled the leg of his pants down as someone knocked on his door. “Come in!”

Ignis seemed to struggle a moment before opening the door, carrying with him a stack of papers that he deposited on Noctis’ barely used desk. “Your father would like you to handle resources coming into and out of Insomnia.”

“What happened to Senator Grizelle?”

“He didn’t say, but I believe the council is focusing more on the war at the moment.”

“They can’t let the generals handle it?”

“Apparently not.”

Noctis pulled the first paper from the stack. It was the first page of many describing inspection regulations of building materials being ordered into the city. “Great. Just great. Did he say anything else? Like what the military’s doing?”

“No. He’s as much in the dark as you and I are at the moment. All we know is that there have been open conflict in the waters east of Tenebrae and some civilians at the border have been displaced. ”

“This is all because of Niflheim right?”

“Safe to assume at the moment.”

“So this is what I’m supposed to do while they gamble with the fate of Lucis. Deal with wood inspection?”

“It’s not a fool's errand you know. Insomnia needs to keep running.” Ignis looked down at his watch, “Do you need anything else? I need to take my Uncle to his doctor.”

Noctis set the paper back down, “Is something wrong?”

“He’s been feeling unwell recently and has lost some weight. We’re hoping it’s just stress.”

“That sucks, yeah I’ll be fine.”

\---

Cindy and Luna left early the next morning to buy some food at Galdin Quay so the house was silent as he found some waffles and made himself breakfast. He turned the TV on to some gaming channel, but got distracted when he noticed a note on his forearm.

**If you got information on some people, I think I could get you your money.**

Prompto frowned, that was an awfully cryptic sounding message for Noctis. He grabbed one of Yuffie’s pens and wrote back.

_How so?_

**Blackmail.**

_You’re going to blackmail someone into giving you money?_

**I’m going to blackmail some people into approving a monthly fund for me.**

_Why? ___

__**Because I like Luna’s plan.** _ _

___For how much?_ _ _

__**I don’t know, how much will I be charged?** _ _

___Luna can ask Aranea._ _ _

__**And you’ll do it?** _ _

___Sure._ _ _

__**Great, thanks. I’ll meet you at the citadel ASAP** _ _

__Luna and Cindy returned with the usual bags of staples and some meat that got stuffed in the freezer. He tried to focus on his show and ignore how tense he felt. When they were done Luna dropped herself heavily onto the overstuffed cushions of the couch._ _

__“Do you know what Noctis is talking about?”_ _

__He shrugged, “He’s your soulmate.”_ _

__“He’s yours too.”_ _

__“Not when he does this. You can keep him.”_ _

__She sighed, “He’s going to get himself in so much trouble.”_ _

__Prompto chose not to think about the request for the entire day, but he knew he couldn’t lounge around too long. Not only was it likely time sensitive, but Aranea would also appreciate a consistent, and fat, paycheck if the number Luna wrote was any indication._ _

__He left early and took one of the cars they had in storage. The drive was mostly uneventful. None of the fighting had made it past the border, nor had any displaced civilians made it that far into Lucis yet. But there were patrolling Lucian soldiers who stopped him twice at barely established checkpoints near Galdin Quay and on his detour through the chocobo ranch._ _

__Security getting into Insomnia was extremely tight. Traffic had back up half a mile before the gates, and most ended up turning around and driving away. He quickly wrote to Noctis asking him what kind of checks they were doing, but didn’t get an answer._ _

__**What kind of car are you driving?** _ _

___Blue buggy._ _ _

__**What does your ID card say?** _ _

___Maes Cornfield_ _ _

__**I’ll let them know you can come in.** _ _

__Prompto genuinely did not like driving up to the gates with no real plan, but he grinned and answered every question as if he were a normal person. The man glanced down at his I.D card, then his car, then his card again before letting him through. Prompto almost felt himself collapse back into his seat as the gates were opened and he was allowed inside._ _

___I’ll be at the visitor’s area at the Citadel by three._ He wrote. Noctis didn’t respond as he found an overnight parking garage to leave his car in. It was a bit of a walk from the Citadel, but he still managed to get there early enough that he had to wait. He looked around and tried to blend in until he saw Noctis come down one of the stairs. The hood of his jacket was up as if it would help him blend in, and he nervously scanned the crowed. His eyes glazed over Prompto’s form twice even as Prompto stared pointedly at him. Eventually he decided to take pity and went up to him when his gaze had turned towards the far end of the gallery._ _

__“So, what was your plan?” He said. Noctis’ jumped so violently he lost his hood and let out a very undignified squawk that made a few heads turn. Prompto felt an eyebrow raise, “Are you okay?”_ _

__“Uhm… wow.” Noctis ran his fingers through his hair, “I thought, uhm, I just thought you’d be, I don’t know. Different.”_ _

__“What, like all those guys in those spy movies? Taller perhaps?”_ _

__Noctis snorted, “I know, it was stupid. Anyway come on we can talk in my office.”_ _

__Prompto hesitantly followed Noctis towards the elevator. It was a strange feeling to be guided through the place like he belonged, he half expected to get attacked by the Glaives or one of Noctis’ advisors. But the walk was uneventful and they ended up in an empty office far from the cameras._ _

__“Wow this place is nice. Luna said you were messy.”_ _

__“Ignis normally keeps everything organized.”_ _

__“Ignis is one of your advisors right?” He said as if he didn’t already know._ _

__“Yeah.” Noctis went and sat on his desk, illustrating his point beautifully by knocking over his pencil holder in the process. “So, I guess I should explain my plan.”_ _

__“Yeah, yeah sure.” Prompto said, a little distracted by the view out of Noctis’ window._ _

__“So I need dirt, like a good amount of it. I need it so when I ask the council for a monthly allowance they will vote in my favor and grant it.”_ _

__“How much do you plan on asking for that you need blackmail?”_ _

__“At least what Aranea asked for.”_ _

__“You know you’re supposed to haggle right?”_ _

__“...Really?”_ _

__“Yeah. This isn’t like a restaurant. She’s going high on this because she expects you to counter offer.”_ _

__“Good to know, but either way I’ll still need the information. Right now they’ve been pretty resistant on going with anything my father and I propose.”_ _

__“So your plan is to blackmail, get the money, and then then…?”_ _

__“I’m still working on it.”_ _

__“That’s reassuring.”_ _

__He shrugged, “We gotta stay light on our feet? Look, since this war has started I’ve been given busy-work. Every once in awhile I get a report on how we’ve lost ten patrols, or an entire village, or that General Mark’s captives have all died during torture. My father and I have to sit back and watch a bunch of people make really bad choices that affect a lot of people. So the way I see it, if they’re going to lock me out then I can go behind their backs and do something.”_ _

__Prompto sighed. Aranea had been right all along, they were just going to wrap him up in their messes “Fine. Unfortunately for you I already know where to start.”_ _

__\---_ _

__That was a cryptic line. Noctis tried to brace himself for the worse._ _

__“The group I worked for used to have contacts here in the citadel, I can go and ask them what they know but you’ve gotta be prepared to bend a little. Don’t go trying to track them down if I say not to.”_ _

__He nodded. That he could do, though he didn’t like to hear that the citadel apparently had spy’s._ _

__“Also…” Prompto said slowly. “Do you know what Ignis’ uncle does?”_ _

__“What? Why does that matter?” Noctis struggled to even remember what Ignis’ uncle looked like. “I think he’s a clerk or something in the courts.”_ _

__“So he’s not a rich council member?”_ _

__“I guess not… why?”_ _

__Prompto’s eyebrows furrowed, “Because around two years ago I took a contract for him. If I recall correctly he suffers from a condition called Situs Inversus, I don’t know what it is exactly but it meant I had to get a heart for him from a live donor. It was the city of Cabo while it was being bombed a few years ago.”_ _

__Noctis’ stomach clenched, but he managed to keep his voice steady. “Okay? So he hired a hitman to kill a guy for his heart. I mean that’s bad, but he’s not a judge. If the council denies me he can’t fix it.”_ _

__“That’s not what I’m getting at. There is no way a man on a clerk’s salary would’ve been able to afford that kind of contract. Someone else had to pay for it, and that someone might be Niflheim.”_ _

__“No, no way! Why would they do that?”_ _

__“Well Ignis is his nephew.”_ _

__“Ignis wouldn’t betray me like that!”_ _

__“He wouldn’t have to. You’d be amazed what people will say to close friends and family. If Niflheim has moles here I’d bet money he’s one of them.” Prompto ran a few fingers through his hair, “Look they didn’t pay to cover up his name so I doubt they paid for a thorough clean up on the body. If the body was found then there’s probably record of it with the city’s forensics department.”_ _

__He felt sick suddenly. “I don’t want to investigate Ignis.”_ _

__Prompto shrugged, “Okay. I’ll just go talk to my contact. I’ll let you know what I find.”_ _

__Noctis let him go, his brain was too tired to really protest anyway. Of all the ways for this meeting to go he wasn’t expecting it to go quite like that._ _

__He glanced up at the clock. Ignis had left early that day after another emergency with his uncle. It was likely he would be back, eventually, if the pile of work on his desk was anything to go by._ _

__\---_ _

__Prompto didn’t wander far. There was a nice, posh restaurant across from the side entrance to the citadel. He nursed a water at the bar and watched the comings and goings through the window until the person he was looking for appeared through the gates at seven in the evening._ _

__The Warden hadn’t changed since Prompto’s final contract a year ago. His face was just and wrinkled and hair just as grey. He wasn’t in any hurry as he crossed the roads heading towards the subway entrance. Prompto finished off his drink and intercepted him right as he passed by the entrance of the restaurant._ _

__“Hey bud.” He said. The Warden jumped and nearly tripped as he turned to face him. “You’re jumpy.”_ _

__“Well excuse me.” The Warden said sarcastically, “I’m sorry if I assumed you were here to kill me. That is what you do.”_ _

__“I do other things.”_ _

__“Like what?”_ _

__“Everything. I’m a well rounded individual. What’s got you so short tempered anyway?”_ _

__“Well, work has been…” He paused, “Work.”_ _

__“Yeah I heard.” Prompto casually stuck his hands in his pockets, which only seemed to make The Warden tense up further. “Listen I came for information. Walk with me?”_ _

__Prompto let The Warden choose the path. He stuck towards the edge of the populated roads. Just far enough that no one would overhear them, but close enough that someone would notice if he made a move._ _

__“What do you need to know?”_ _

__“I’m doing work for the crown.”_ _

__“Is that so…” The warden said nervously. Prompto’s threat hit it’s mark._ _

__“Yeah. Listen, I want to know who else was mole. Anyone you can give me, not just our guys.”_ _

__“I’m going to assume that if I don’t then my head’s on the chopping block.”_ _

__“Potentially. You got any good names?”_ _

__“Depends on your definition. No Glaives though.”_ _

__“What about in the judicial department?”_ _

__“Some, one judge and a clerk.”_ _

__“Would that clerk be Patricio Scientia?”_ _

__“No. Should it be?”_ _

__“Not necessarily. Look give me what you can and I won’t bring up your name when I bring it up to my employer.”_ _

__“Look you can say the Prince. There’s only two of them and the King is too smart to try and pull whatever this is.”_ _

__The Warden listed off the names quickly and quietly as they passed by an empty alley. Prompto only recognized a few of them off the top of his head. They parted ways near another subway entrance which The Warden quickly entered. Prompto walked several blocks down towards the downtown area and found a room at an underbooked hotel. When he got to his room he used the phone to dial Wedge’s secured number and gave him the names. An hour later Wedge dialed him back with the info he had._ _

__Most of them were clerks, secretaries, and security. But four council members were listed as well. Prompto collapsed onto his bed and decided to deal with this in the morning._ _

__\---_ _

__“I wasn’t expecting you to still be here.” Ignis said as he closed the door. Noctis barely kept himself from jumping as his mind was forced to once again focus._ _

__“Yeah well, you know how it is. Gotta get these logs into the city.”_ _

__He tried to sound normal, but his voice wavered enough that Ignis gave him a long, hard look before heading over to his own desk. “Don’t mind me then, I have some reading I need to finish.”_ _

__“Yeah, you do that reading.”_ _

__“Okay… Is there something you want to talk about?”_ _

__“No, why would you ask? I’m fine, I’m great.” He emphasized each word, making him sound like an over enthusiastic cartoon character._ _

__Ignis dragged his chair over to the other side of Noctis’ desk and sat down, “No you’re not, you’re clearly hiding something.”_ _

__Noctis tried to keep a straight face, but Ignis pinned him with a look of patience and understanding that quickly shattered his resolve._ _

__“How’s your uncle?”_ _

__“You’re stalling.”_ _

__“Please just answer.” He begged._ _

__Ignis raised an eyebrow, “He’s doing fine. Why do you ask?”_ _

__“He had a heart transplant right? I remember it was difficult?”_ _

__“The transplant itself wasn’t difficult, though for a long time we were worried we wouldn’t get one in time.”_ _

__“Why not?”_ _

__“My uncle suffers from a rare condition called situs inversus. All of his organs are reversed including the heart. Finding a donor was difficult. Why are you asking Noct?”_ _

__His stomach did a familiar turn, “Do you know who the donor was?”_ _

__“No, they chose to remain anonymous. Noctis what is the matter?”_ _

__He sighed and said in as steady a voice as he could, “Because I’ve been talking to our third soulbond…”_ _

__Ignis frowned, “The one that kidnapped Lady Lunafreya? Why would you do that?”_ _

__“Well he contacted me, asked what happened to Luna since I was trying to write to her. Turns out she was captured by Niflheim and he got her out.”_ _

__“Forgive me if I don’t entirely believe that. How do you know he’s not pretending to be her?”_ _

__“Let’s just say that I know.”_ _

__“Fine, assuming you magically know this, what does my uncle have to do with all of this.”_ _

__“Because… well. So the reason we weren’t able to track him two years ago was because he apparently works in espionage like the people in our special services department. And, I guess, well… he said he’s the one who got your uncle’s heart.”_ _

__He could see Ignis sit up straighter, back a little more tense, “So you’re accusing my uncle of what exactly?”_ _

__“Look I know this sounds hard to believe, but -”_ _

__“Of course it’s hard to believe!” Ignis said sternly. “This strange man comes in, a man who kidnapped Lady Lunafreya and held her captive for half a month before dumping her in the streets, might I add, and says that my uncle ordered a hit on some random civilian! And you believe him!”_ _

__“Well he certainly knew a lot about it!”_ _

__“Like what?”_ _

__“Like the fact that your uncle has situs inversus, first of all. He knew that specifically!”_ _

__“If he truly works for a secret service agency then finding that bit of information wouldn’t be difficult. Have you thought of not blindly trusting some stranger you barely know?”_ _

__“I’m trying to cover my bases Ignis, if he is right then it’s a serious problem. Your uncle has access to court documents, a pass into the citadel, you’ve probably shared a bunch of information, potentially dangerous information, with him. A lot could go wrong if we don’t at least consider it. Prompto said that if the body was found in Cabo then we could probably find record of it. It’s a war Ignis, I can’t afford to not be attentive.”_ _

__Ignis didn’t say anything, but his face was just short of murderous. His eyes were narrowed and lips pursed like he’d drank sour milk. Noctis felt his stomach twist in the long, tense silence._ _

__“If you will excuse me.” Ignis said, voice calm and cold as he stood. “I will see you tomorrow.”_ _

__Ignis slammed the door on his way out._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter felt clunky, but I decided to upload it anyway because why not?  
> Word of warning, don't try to upload a new chapter when AO3 is acting up. Nothing will go right.
> 
> [Check out my tumblr!](https://ithinkicanwritesometimes.tumblr.com/)


	11. Success Via Bullshit

Noctis was fairly certain he’d just fallen asleep when he heard a knock on his door, but he was willing to accept that perhaps this had been a strange few days and even time was difficult to track at this point. He slowly hauled his body out of bed to open the door where he found Gladio in some exercise clothes holding two pole-arms.

“No, absolutely not.” He said before Gladio could say anything. “I am one hundred percent not doing that. What time is it?”

“It’s five.”

“In the morning?”

“Yes.” He shoved one of the pole-arms into his hands. “Ignis wrote to me about your little fight last night. Figured you’d want to tell me about it while we trained.”

“I literally would rather do anything else.”

Gladio forcefully grabbed his arm and pulled him down the hallway. “Sounds like you want to use the great sword instead.”

\---

“A monthly allowance doesn’t sound half bad to be honest.” Aranea said through the phone.

“And here I thought you were enjoying getting those big contract checks.”

“They are nice, but one nice thing about mop up was getting paid every month even though you were the last number they called.”

“Sounds nice.” He said. The computer dinged and the safe popped open. Prompto reached inside for the Councilwoman’s accounting books. “Maybe we’ll have a few paid months off. He doesn’t seem to have much of a plan.”

“Does he have any kind of plan?”

“Just what Luna described really.” He flipped through the most recent book. “Basically go directly for the Emperor.”

“That’ll never work, he’s too well guarded.”

“That’s what I said.” Just like he expected, her expenses didn’t match the ones she’d reported.

“We’d have to weaken Niflheim first. Go after their territories and unrest them. Their politics have always been cutthroat, unrest parts of them and they’ll start going after each other.”

He sighed, “Sounds like you’ve got a plan going already.”

“Yuffie and Cindy have been trying really hard to turn me around. Look as good as war money is the longer this goes the more things go to shit, and we’re better off stopping Niflheim than anyone. Besides, it’s not like we’ll be out of a job, Kings always need us to do their dirty work. As you’re clearly finding out.”

He tore the offending pages out and stuffed them into his pocket. “I just love these little talks we have.”

\---

Between the exhaustion and stress Noctis didn’t last long in training. His form had deteriorated slowly until he overextended one swing and his weak hands let go, throwing the greatsword two feet away where it landed with a heavy thud on the training mat. The sudden change in weight made him lose his footing entirely and he fell to his back much in the same way. He attempted to get up once, but his arms felt much like overcooked noodles and he struggled to catch his breath.

“Alright, we can take a break princess.” Gladio groaned.

Noctis refused to attempt to move again, forcing Gladio to take one of his arms and haul him up.

“So you want to tell me what happened?”

Noctis slowly pulled his sore arms over his head in a deep stretch. “What did he already tell you?”

“That you’re talking to your third soulbond, and that he’s apparently a hitman?”

“Basically? I’m not entire sure what he does.”

“Well you know he kills people for money. Sounds like a hitman to me.”

Noctis gingerly walked himself over to the nearby bench and sat down. “I guess. Anyway, it’s really dumb, but I’m having him basically blackmail a few council members to approve a spending allowance that I can use to pay for him and his, I don’t know, group to go and attack Niflheim.”

“Wow.” Gladio deadpanned, “Every part of that sounds incredibly illegal.”

“Not every part. Technically there’s no law preventing the crown from using funds they have to pay for outside contracts against an invading power.”

“But there’s definitely laws against blackmail.”

“Yeah…” He sighed and rubbed at his sore shoulder, “How’s Iggy?”

Gladio sat down next to him, “When I talked to him this morning he seemed to have come down, but do you honestly think Iggy would betray you like that?”

“No! I told him I didn’t!”

“Then why put any weight to it? Why even bring it up?”

“I don’t know, okay? It seemed like something I should do, cause what if it is true? We’re better off knowing now. Plus what Prompto said matched up with what Ignis said. He knew that it was Situs Inversus, and Ignis said that it was an anonymous donation. That is suspicious.”

“That’s true.” Gladio sat down next to him with a big sigh, “I know it’s stupid, but I never really expected a war to go quite like this.”

\---

What started off as a small collection of notes quickly covered half of the wall in the living room as everyone added whatever little detail they thought would be useful. People piled on whatever they knew then Aranea and Wedge would sit down and connect details with twine and make their own notes. Luna watched as a clear plan slowly formed from the confusing mess.

“I wonder if this is what the big wigs at The Organization used to do?” Wedge said as he pinned the vacation dates of two Niflheim Captains in Accordo. “Cause I used to think it was a bunch of really smart people meticulously planning every detail, but maybe it was a bunch of tired people locked in a room with miles of twine.”

“You’re assuming they planned shit.” Yuffie countered, “Maybe they were just going with it and whatever happened happened.”

“No they definitely planned shit. You don’t last as long as they have without planning shit. They had The Compound for crying out loud.”

“Which I bet is abandoned by now.”

“Nah, no way. That place was self running. They’re probably waiting to release anyone until The Organization comes back.”

Luna turned her head towards the bickering pair. “Is that a prison?”

The two stopped and looked awkwardly at one another before Yuffie spoke, “No, it’s more like a school I guess? I’ve never been.”

“It’s like a boarding school.” Wedge filled in, “It’s where most of us were trained.”

“As children?”

“For the most part. Yuffie and Claire were recruited later.”

“So you were all child soldiers then?”

Wedge shrugged, “I wouldn’t put it like that per say. I mean we weren’t expected to kill anyone while we were there or anything. It was training.”

“But you had to be released?”

“Released into active duty, after they felt like we were ready. And that’s all I can say about it.”

Luna frowned, “Sounds like a prison.”

“I mean… yeah…?.” Wedge shrugged.

\---

Noctis’ office was empty when he’d managed to get up to it that morning. Ignis normally was the first to arrive, sometimes with a spare breakfast incase Noctis didn’t eat before coming, but he wasn’t surprised to see that that wasn’t the case that morning. Despite that Noctis decided to get started on work if only so Ignis didn’t have anything else to stress about when he got in.

A little before lunch, right when Noctis was contemplating leaving to grab something to eat, the door opened, and a very somber looking Ignis walked into the room. Noctis bit his tongue as Ignis, with bags under his eyes and hair disheveled, grabbed a chair and sat across from him once again.

“I looked into Cabo.”

“Oh…” Noctis said nervously.

“There was a death as you described during the bombing. It was a John Doe that had been caught in a fire, but forensics noted the heart had been removed before the body had been burned.” He buried his face in his heads, “There was no investigation.”

“I’m sorry Ignis.” He said, because he truly did not know what else to say.

“Me to.”

\---

**Looks like you can investigate Patricio Scientia.**

Prompto raised an eyebrow but chose not to write a response. He suspected something big had to have happened to cause this change of heart, and he honestly didn’t care what it was. In anycase it might provide a relief from the incredibly boring task of investigating each individual council member. Information gathering wasn’t something new or exciting, and finding something worthwhile wasn’t easy. For many people the darkest secret he could find was distasteful adult material. Which, unfortunately, did not make good enough blackmail to swing a vote. 

Wedge got him the address of the Scientia home and he broke in soon after lunch when Noctis let him know Ignis had left for another doctor’s appointment. It was a modest apartment with a simple kitchen, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a small office. Prompto opened up the first door in the hallway to see what had to be Ignis’ room. It was neater than he would expect from a man in his twenties, but the age appropriate book shelf full of comics and a figurine collection were present. He skipped that one and went inside the next bedroom.

Patricio’s room was as neat as his nephew’s, but almost depersonalized. The only hobby he seemed to partake in were books present on the shelf near the window. A small desk with an old laptop sat next to it. Across from both of those was the made-up bed, a lamp, and the dresser. Prompto checked through the drawers of the dresser then checked for a loose floorboard. Neither turned up anything out of place.

He left the room and checked the office where a full PC was set up on the desk. A stack of files laid next to the keyboard, but those held just information on Patricio’s taxes. The shelf was full of books on legal code and the law. None of the draws had anything important either.

Prompto booted up Patricio’s personal laptop in his room. The password was easy to break through, it was just Ignis’ name with the year of his birth. The laptop was old and barely used, so Prompto was able to find what he was looking for easily.

Patricio’s email was mostly filled with work related messages, but there was one address he sent messages to on the first of every month. The address was made up of a random string of numbers and letters, and never replied to the messages. Prompto opened up the message sent for last month and found that everything was empty except for the attachment.

The first part of this ten page report went into excruciating detail of each of the twenty-five Superior Judges sitting on Insomnia’s highest court. Some were fairly business like, detailing the judge’s general activity and any notable ruling. A few were just a sentence long stating that this judge had done nothing of note during the month. One page long entry on Judge Claude was extremely damning, going into great detail on how much he was charging for information or how to judge a particular case. He’d notably charged a large fortune to rule in favor of General Mark’s field execution of several Niflheim civilians who’d crossed the border.

Part two was a two page report mostly pertaining to Noctis. There were notes about his activities, an injury he sustained during training, projects he’d been assigned. None of it went into a great amount of detail implying that Ignis wasn’t feeding Patricio information, but that Patricio was pulling it from from everyday conversations.

The rest of the document wasn’t too interesting. Patricio admitted to forging some documents brought to Judge Maria regarding a captured captain who had imprisoned in The Citadel’s dungeon and was quickly released. He then went on to say that he had upped the frequency of his meetings with his contact to keep him informed on special assignments.

Prompto wrote down the email address for Wedge to look into then informed Noctis of what he’d found.

**Can you send it to me?**

_I don’t know what kind of security they have on this. I’m seeing if someone can pull the files on the received end._

**How long will that take?**

_Depends on the security on that end._

**Do you know who his contact is?**

_No. Has he been going to another place more often?_

**All I know is that Ignis has been taking him to his doctor more often.**

_I’ll look into that._

\---

The office was unnervingly quiet throughout the day. Ignis refused to look up from his work for anything, and Noctis quietly sat and worried himself crazy over what Prompto would find out. Noctis almost sighed in relief when Ignis went to take his uncle to the doctor’s. Ignis didn’t return by the time the work day was over so Noctis raced up to his room and settled onto his bed to play some King’s Knight and forget about it all.

A few hours later, when his phone was just starting to flash the battery warning, he heard a knock at his door. Noctis waited a moment, but the person didn’t let themselves in so he prepared himself for another awkward conversation with either Ignis or Gladio as he walked over and opened the door.

Noctis was surprised to see Prompto on the other side leisurely slurping at a slurpee as if this were a casual meeting outside a gas station. Noctis silently panicked for a moment before he pulled himself together enough to yank Prompto into his room and slam the door shut.

“How did you get in here?” Noctis asked. Prompto didn’t stop in his slurping as he pulled his arm out of Noctis’ grip then furnished Gladio’s I.D card. “When did you take that?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Prompto said. He threw the now empty cup in Noctis’ trash. “You read the email?”

“What email?”

“My guy sent it to you an hour ago.”

Noctis had to jam the charger into his phone before it would let him open up his email app. When he managed to do that he found an email from an unidentified sender with no message and several files attached to it.

“What’s this?”

“The files Patricio sent. They went to a server up in Niflheim, that’s all we could get on it.”

“So he has been leaking information to Niflheim?”

“Looks like it.” Prompto sat himself down on his desk. “By the way his contact has been the doctor.”

“Great. Just great… I’ll have to show these to my father.”

“Six of your judges have been completely compromised, who judges a judge?”

“They’ll lose their positions and my dad’ll have to elect new members before we can judge them. What do you have on the council?”

“Left the file in a vent in your office.”

“Why’d you leave it there?”

“Well you don’t want someone catching you with it.”

“Oh… right.”

“You can’t make mistakes like that if you’re going to run around threatening people you know.”

“Nooooo.” He groaned. “How much to make you do it?”

“This was your idea!”

“But I can’t do it! What if they call my bluff?”

“You’re going in there with actual proof just to bluff? Don’t make threats you can’t keep!”

“I can’t actually reveal that I know something can I? They’ll just tell my father that I tried to blackmail them!”

“Holy fuck you are spoiled.” Prompto stood up and headed for the door. “Fine, I’ll do it. Where’s your wine cellar?”

“Fifty-first floor. Why?”

“I’m taking a bottle.” Prompto slipped through the door before Noctis could protest.

\---

At around 2A.M Luna contemplated actually going upstairs to sleep in her bed, but she couldn’t bring herself to come out from under her blanket on the couch. Yuffie had another one of her terrible, terrible action movies playing and the smell of popcorn was still wafting through the living area. She was too comfortable on the couch to move.

She heard the click of someone coming through the front door, but that didn’t bother her enough to get her up.

“Found our files.” Claire said. There was a soft thud as she set the stack down. Yuffie shifted on the couch.

“Where did you find it?” Asked Aranea. Luna didn’t realize she was still down here.

“In Accordo, old handler checkpoint.”

“Is it everyone’s?” Yuffie asked.

“Yeah. Burned mine already. When are we supposed to be on the next assignment?”

“Whenever Prompto’s done I assume. You’ve got time to visit Sarah.” Aranea said.

“Hey pass me your lighter I’m gonna burn mine too!” Yuffie hopped off the couch, jostling Luna just enough that she propped herself up.

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing.” Claire said sharply. She grabbed one of the files and headed upstairs.

“We’re just taking care of some business.” Yuffie said. She had a lighter in one hand as she held a burning file over the sink with another.

\---

Councilwoman Viera gave him a glare so dark Noctis had to check to make sure his face wasn’t melting off. She didn’t say anything as he passed by her on his way to his father’s office, thankfully, but he supposed he shouldn’t be surprised that he wasn’t making friends.

He by passed his father’s secretary and let himself in, assuming this was an acceptable action since the door to his father’s office was open. Despite that Regis didn’t look up as Noctis sat down across from him.

“Is there some special occasion I’m not privy to?” His father joked. Noctis had hoped that approaching after lunch would put his father in a better mood, but he wasn’t expecting a joke and a smile. Work must’ve been kind to him that morning.

“No, just came to visit you.”

“Is that so?” He looked up from the file he’d been reading, “I’d stopped expecting these spontaneous visits when you were seven. Missing me that much?”

“Sure.” He said, trying to keep the good mood going. “But in all seriousness I have something I was hoping you’d present to the council when you meet next?”

His father raised an eyebrow. “Concerning what?”

“Just a spending allowance?”

Regis held out his hand for the form which he reluctantly handed over. Noctis watched his face as he read, noticing the exact moment his father got to the actual amount he was requesting.

“What could you possibly need with this much money?” He demanded.

“W-well… I.” He stuttered, “I need it because I wanted to take a more active participation in the war.”

Gladio had helped him write out a short, diplomatic answer to this question. With the way his father raised an eyebrow he assumed they both missed the mark.

“Doing what?”

“You know, uhm. By, uhm, arranging special aid to, uhm, specific areas?”

“How? And what type of aid?”

“Uhm, people? I’m going to attempt to recruit people to help other people and bring stuff…”

“Personally? Or are you going to hire people to hire other people to help bring stuff?”

“... Personally?”

His father slowly set the paper down, “Noctis. I fear you might be disappointed.”

“Can you just try please?” He said hurriedly.

“Fine. This will be a good lesson for you to learn.”

“Thank you.”

He fled the office before his father could say anything more humiliating, passing by two other pissed councilmembers on his walk up to his office.

Ignis had returned in the time Noctis was with his father, and was busy typing something on his computer. Noctis assumed that Gladio hadn’t informed him about what they were up to and decided not to mention it, but that clearly hadn’t been the case since Ignis looked away from the screen to pin him with an unamused look.

“Did it work?”

“Kinda?” He said slowly. “But I told him that I was personally going out recruiting aid.”

“So it didn’t work and this is all turning out terribly.”

“It is not!”

“Noct you lied to your own father. Terribly might I add.”

“You weren’t there!” His stomach clenched with guilt.

“True, but I do know you.” He rested his chin on his hand, “Though leaving might be for the best.”

“How so?”

“I will eventually have to turn in my uncle…”

“You don’t have to do that!” He almost yelled, “Can’t you just talk to him?”

“Talk to him about what? He betrayed this country and my trust, lied to and bribed his own colleagues, took the information I told him and sold it to foreign powers. We can’t give that a free pass.”

“He was sick.”

“That’s not enough to excuse him.” He sighed, “When are they meeting next?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

“I suppose I can wait until then.”

\---

With nothing on his plate for the immediate future Prompto chose to sleep in until close to noon before getting ready for the day. He couldn’t leave Insomnia until he knew matters were finished so he spent his time walking around the nearby park as he waited for an update.

The words came as he sat on a bench and attempted to eat an ice cream cone faster than it could melt in the slight heat of the midday son. They came on his wrist in tiny, almost indistinguishable, lettering.

**They approved it. Can you come up to my office?**

Prompto looked over the words and in that time managed to get ice cream all over his other hand. He dumped it in the trash before heading to the Citadel. Gladio’s keycard had probably shut off by now so he was careful to creep past security and grab a spare keycard that got him up the right floor. Like usual the hallway was fairly empty so he knocked a few times at the door and waited patiently for it to open.

When the door opened Noctis immediately pulled him inside like before even though the only person around to see either of them was Ignis who sat at his desk looking slightly put out.

“This is him?” Ignis asked.

“Yeah, this is him.” Noctis answered. “So I got the money.”

“Yeah I heard. You need Aranea’s number?”

“Well, no.” Noctis said slowly. “Look I have another problem.”

“What other problem could you possibly be having?”

Noctis didn’t immediately respond, so Ignis leaned forward in his seat and said. “He’s basically told his father that he’s going out to personally recruit soldiers, which means that to keep the cover up he will eventually have to leave.”

“Holy shit.” Prompto groaned, “How’d you do that?”

“I couldn’t think of a convincing lie to tell him to get him to introduce it. The number looks a lot more reasonable when they’re assuming I’m out there doing stuff too.”

“I can’t believe you’re a politician who doesn’t know how to lie.”

“I’m a prince not a politician.” Noctis seemed almost offended at the comparison.

“And like any prince I guess you’ll get what you want.” He said, “Look I spoke to Aranea, she said we should start in Accordo. You can meet us there if you really can’t sit still here.”

“Great. How does that sound Ignis?”

“Sounds about as great as the rest of this plan you’ve concocted.” He said sarcastically.

“Thanks Iggy.”

\---

The phone in the living room rang twice before Wedge picked it up. Luna couldn’t hear what he said from where she was in the kitchen, but after a moment he called for Aranea. Luna tried not to give in to the urge to eavesdrop, but soon she and Cindy were at the corner listening in as the cookies baked.

“I will go as low as ten percent off, but any more and he’s going to have to look for another group to do his dirty work.” A pause, “Good. Have him transfer it to the usual account.”

Aranea hung up and they both only had a moment before she rounded the corner, “Cindy, we’re green-lit. Get Biggs and Yuffie and do the usual recon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter brought to you by every group project ever where one person does all the work because they're the only one who knows what they're doing.
> 
> Next chapter we will return to our regularly scheduled murder.
> 
> Here's my tumblr: https://ithinkicanwritesometimes.tumblr.com/


	12. Accordo Set Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So if there are typos or confusing bits let me know asap. I've been exhausted for an entire week.

The house was a whirlwind of activity as everyone got ready to depart with so many busy bodies coming and going that she failed to notice Prompto returning. One day she woke up and he suddenly was there drinking a mouthful of orange juice straight from the container. Cindy was fishing the last of the bacon out of the frying pan as Aranea cleaned out the coffee caref.

“Claire found your file.” Aranea said. Luna paused at the top of the staircase. Feeling a little like she were eavesdropping even though she was certain they all knew she was there.

“Where was it?”

“Old handler base. That’s all she told me before she went off to see Serah.”

“Did anyone read it?”

“No, I left it in the office. We all burned ours.”

“Thanks. I’ll look at it later.”

That was tempting. Luna would be the first to admit she had a nosey streak a mile wide, and the urge to turn back and go through the office was like being pulled by a rope. But she resisted and headed down the stairs without turning back.

There had been a little buzz after Claire came back with the files. She knew that Yuffie and Claire had burned theirs, and that Wedge had chose to keep his, but no one was very forthcoming about what exactly was inside them. It drove her insane. With very little to do around the safehouse she found it difficult to not latch onto the next greatest mystery. But she did it. When Prompto headed up to the office she successfully kept to her seat and let him deal with it without her looking over his shoulder. Though she did notice when he left the office and barricaded himself in his room.

It was only late at night when she saw him again. Everyone had retreated to their rooms, but she wasn’t feeling tired so she put on a stupid romantic comedy with hopes it’d somehow lull her to sleep. Thus far there was some convoluted plot and several points where they could have stopped dancing around, and she was still wide awake trying to make sense of it all. It was extremely stupid and unentertaining, so she wasn’t too engrossed to notice Prompto coming down the stairs. She wasn’t surprised, either, when he microwaved some leftover fried rice, grabbed a blanket, and sat down next to him on the couch.

Prompto looked tired. There were bags under his eyes and he seemed to sag into the couch as if his body were too heavy for him to carry. She stuck her feet out from under the blankets and rubbed them along his side.

“You look like you should be asleep.”

“I could say the same to you.”

“I slept until one this afternoon. My sleep schedule is all messed up.”

“Why did you do that?”

She grabbed a bit of his shirt between her toes and tugged. “I harbor a deep self loathing.”

“That’s a shame.”

They fell into silence as the girl in the movie went into a poorly written rant putting down her love interest that ended with her listing a grand total of three superficially good qualities about him. Luna pondered why she didn’t pick something better written, this was almost so bad it was entertaining. But it wasn’t so entertaining that it kept her thoughts from wandering back to Prompto.

“What’d you do with your file?” She asked.

“...It’s still in my room. I think I’ll burn it in the morning.”

“Why are these files so important anyway?” She found herself asking.

“They’re old files The Organization had on us.” Prompto answered. “They kept track of our contract history, skills, stuff like that.”

“You seem awfully drained over some numbers.”

Prompto’s lips pursed together. She could feel herself getting closer to the goal line, to some kind of satisfying conclusion.

“They also kept a personal history. Information on friends, family, stuff like that.” He explained. “I know that for a few people, like Claire, it’s the only thing they could keep over us. Like they got information on Claire’s sister, which is what kept her here. I know they bought Yuffie's info from another group, but I’m not sure what it was. Since I was raised by them it’s all the information on my training.”

“Was it that bad?”

He sighed, “A little. Some of it was certainly surprising.”

She had gotten all out of him that she could for that evening, so she refrained from asking more. They finished the movie and eventually headed off to bed before the sun rose.

Not a few hours later she was woken up with a loud knock on the door.

“Claire came back and we’re heading out.” Wedge said from the other side of the door. Luna reluctantly pulled herself from her bed, found a pair of jeans, a jacket, and a hat to put on, and headed downstairs.

Everyone was up and packing the last of the supplies onto three separate boats they were to take to Accordo. Most of it was equipment and weapons. She saw Prompto count his ammo before shoving it in a duffle along with several different types of guns and a jacket. Wedge packed that last of the equipment in an unassuming, red luggage set.

Claire’s face was stony and neutral as she finished accounting for her weapons. Luna went to pass her, but Claire caught her eye and waved her over.

“Hey, you’re going with us right?” She asked.

“That was my understanding…”

Claire reached into her bag and pulled out a knife. The handle was a light pink color and its sheath a deep red. She pushed the item into Luna’s hands. “Take this then, you might need it.”

“Uhm, thanks.” Luna wanted to ask why she had it, but felt like it was best she didn’t. She went and helped load up the first boat.

They would leave in waves. The first wave was a boat with all of the technology Biggs and Wedge would need in Accordo. Next was the boat with all the weapons for everyone. Finally a lone boat that wouldn’t carry anything, but would arrive later mostly so that they didn’t have an especially large group arriving in one place. All three were to arrive at different ports in the city at different intervals and begin setting. By the time she and Claire arrive hopefully everything would be done and the ball could get rolling.

“Luna.” Aranea said, approaching her as the last of the technology was loaded and Prompto and Biggs drove off first. “We need to change your appearance. How do you feel about a haircut?”

“What?” She asked, surprised.

“You’re a little too recognizable right now. A haircut will help with that, make you a little more anonymous.”

Luna fingered the strands of her hair. “But we weren’t worried when I went over to Galdin Quay.”

“Galdin Quay is a low traffic area. Not many people can go there and the people who do are on vacation. Accordo is a big place under Niflheim control. We can’t leave you alone at the safehouse and we can’t let you wander around by yourself knowing what you know. So you can choose a haircut or I’ll choose it for you.”

Luna tried not to bristle at the threat. Aranea was not always the nicest or the most gentle. But that still didn’t make it any easier to sit down in the chair and wait as she and Claire found a pair of scissors to hack away at her hair.

“How much you want off?” Claire asked. Luna stroked the ends as she thought it over. It had to be short enough for Aranea’s approval or she’d just come by and do it herself.

“Short. Like Yuffie’s.” She said. “Not too much off the front, maybe an inch or so?”

“Alright, I’m not a hairdresser though. Yuffie can probably give you something better when we get there.”

Luna almost flinch when she heard the sharp sound of scissors cutting through the hair close to her ear, but she kept her head held up high so the line didn’t end up crooked. Claire sliced through the strands mechanically, living her with a straight edge that likely looked awful on her. It was over quickly, however, and she tried not to feel anything as the strands of her hair were swept up, wrapped in a few pieces of old newspaper, and swiftly burned to get rid of evidence.

The breeze on her neck was uncomfortable, but Aranea gave the nod of approval and left it at that. Honestly getting a haircut was the least horrible thing she’d had to experience since the bombing at the theater, but as she finger the strands she couldn’t help but feel like this marked something important. Like a big change or the start of something. Though part of her felt like this might be superstition.

Aranea ended up leaving an hour afterwards, all the weapons hidden amongst bags and a variety of other equipment. She always found it funny that it was easier to get a sword into a city than a military grade scrambler, but she didn’t think too much on it. The world was a weird place.

She and Claire spent their three hours alone mostly in silence. Nothing needed to be packed and no distress signal came from any of the previous groups so she got some rest on the couch until the alarm she set went off.

“Should be smooth sailing.” Claire said as she started up the boat, “But I’m going to be going fast so let me know if you need to puke.”

\---

It took a lot of work to organize it, more work than Aranea normally gave for what the prince was paying. She hoped he appreciated it, but she had a suspicion he didn’t understand what exactly he was asking.

When she arrived everything was already set up, the rooms had been assigned, and everything was running smoothly. Preliminary intel was pinned to the board and a report was on the table for her to read. She sat down and got to work planning, piecing together what they’d known with any new information they’d gotten. Eventually a plan came together on the cork board just as Claire and Luna walked through the door.

“Our targets are Duke Roman and his family, and a visiting Admiral. Duke Roman is fairly close to the emperor and has been able to rule Accordo as he sees fit with Niflheim support.” She began. Gesturing to the pictures pinned up on the corkboard. “The Duke’s wife, Siena Roman, has sparked local outrage after she ordered the destruction of a local temple to make way for a shrine to her family. She is related to several prominent generals, some of whom invaded Accordo. His two children attend the local university during the day and participate in various outside activities.

We’ve recently found that his daughter, Faren, is having an illicit romance with a local gang member. Not a leader but certainly notable. We will eliminate her while she visits him and pin the blame on him, making this seem like an unfortunate act of random violence. This will hopefully hit home and her and spark unrest within the family. His son, Dario, is fairly introverted and often stays home when he is not required to leave it. Finding him outside their home long enough to kill him is preferred, but might prove difficult. Finally we will eliminate Roman and his wife after their children. We want the children’s deaths to look random, it’ll buy us some time until we can handle the parents which will look intentional and targeted. In the end we want someone to figure out that this was a targeted attack to upset Niflheim. That is ultimately our goal, to unrest the heads of Niflheim enough to caught conflict so that by the time we’re in Niflheim they don’t trust one another.

A Niflheim Admiral will be visiting Roman in a few days time. He’s here to finalize recruitment and military action at Accordo’s border, and we can’t get to him before the meeting with Roman. Yuffie can grab the information from Roman’s office, but we’ll need to stop the intercept the Admiral on his way out. Claire, you and Wedge will handle that. I’ve arranged for an opening as they head towards the border. It’ll be on a water and a safehouse will be north of there. More details will be available later, but you must be prepared at any time in case things change. Killing the Admiral will disrupt military operations in the area and and, hopefully, operations on other parts of the continent.

Yuffie will stay in the Duke’s house as a maid, and I’ll work with her to track the Duke and his wife. Cindy, scope out the daughter and her boyfriend. Prompto I want you to tail the son, see if you can dig up anything more valuable on him. Any sort of weak point. I don’t want our only option to be the house. We’ll have at least a week to prepare. Let’s get to work.”

\---

There were a lot of details that went into blending in, especially in a very specific place. Cindy always found it a bit difficult.

A seedy bar with only a handful of people was even more difficult than most people thought. She had to look similarly weathered. Like she’d worked long hours since she was young and she was just there to mind her business and have a beer. Some things were just hard to replicate, however. Her hair went mostly up in a baseball cap because she didn’t have time to let it get knotted and greasy. She avoided showering the morning she went out so she didn’t smell like any sort of soap or perfume. Her clothes were picked up hastily from a nearby thrift store and barely fit. She carefully applied makeup that clashed with her undertone, making her skin look pallad and uncared for. All little steps that allowed her to draw little attention as she wandered around the seedy underbelly of the city.

She couldn’t stake out the bar. Someone would notice if she spent all day in the place. So she found a nice, comfy spot on a bench across the street and curled up like a drunk too wasted to make it all the way home. People on this side of town passed her by without a glance. It was here she waited until she saw her target.

Jarod Wellen was a tall, handsome man with a tattoo that ran down the back of his neck and sunglasses that never seemed to leave his face. His usual outfit was the leather jacket with his gang’s logo on the back and a pair of jeans. He headed into the bar a little past noon. Soon after Cindy suddenly woke from her pretend drunken stupor to follow him inside. She nursed a single beer as he caught up with a few friends in a corner booth. They spoke and ate greasy food, swapping unimportant stories and updates on their lives before calling a waitress over for the bill.

When he left she left, and she shadowed him until well in the morning when he returned home. There was a camera on that street corner so she headed back to the safehouse and passed the information over to Wedge who began recording the street.

Cindy slept for an hour until Yuffie’s alarm woke them both up for her to get to work. She went back to sleep when Yuffie left and woke up around midday after which Biggs gave her an update on her target. After she had breakfast she headed out to the area he was last seen at and followed him until he returned home early in the morning.

This repeated for two days until he made contact with her target. Faren Roman met him in a cafe several streets from her university after her classes and the two immediately drove off to a motel room near the edge of the city. Cindy didn’t need to peak in to know what they were doing, but she was interested in how often this occured. After they’d been inside for twenty minutes she picked the lock to his car and rifled through Faren’s bag until she found her planner. Right inside, penciled in for the time they met, was a note to meet with a tutor. Cindy went through the pages finding meetings up to four times a week. There wasn’t a definite pattern, but they’d met consistently on Wednesdays since the semester began.

Following them for the rest of the week was a formality after that. She needed to make sure the patterns matched, and the predictably did. They met once on Friday and again on Saturday. Always at the motel, never for more than two hours.

After she got back on Sunday she wrote up her findings in a report and handed them off to Aranea.

\---

Yuffie had been undercover for a week, what was another?

Until the meeting she had little else to do. She’d message Aranea when either of the elder Roman’s left the home, but they carried on much like they had before. Expensive activities and the occasional order at her or at a group she was working with. The Roman’s weren’t rude per say, but they certainly weren’t grateful.

Every night she and Aranea sat down at the safehouse and had a quick discussion over what they would do the next day. For the first few days all was quiet and they had little that they didn’t already know. But it was only a matter of time before the meeting happened.

“We need to make sure no one else is in that meeting or will get a copy of what they discuss.” Aranea said the night before the meeting.

“We do.” She reluctantly agreed. “I can try to stay outside and keep note of who comes in or out.”

Aranea shook her head, “That might not be enough. We don’t know if they’ll write anything down. I was thinking cameras.”

“Of course you were.” She whined.

“Biggs has a set we can use. Don’t worry about replacing them.”

“I wasn’t. I’m more worried about getting in there before they have their meeting.”

“You could always go now?”

“Why can’t you do it?”

“Cause I’m the leader, I don’t want to, and you’re the best at breaking and entering.”

Those were all, unfortunately, valid points, and soon Yuffie was scaling the outside of the Roman’s home. A think jacket the only protection from any attack that might come her way. She made it into the home easily, hastily slipping into a hiding place when a guard on patrol passed by the window.

Thus far they had no reason to suspect a breach in security, or that they were targets of an attack. Security reflected this. Yuffie krept through the halls, easily passing by tired guards and using her standard issue key to open the lock.

Roman’s office was like any other she saw. A desk and two chairs, one for a guest one for Roman himself, a bookshelf, some trinkets, and a computer. Yuffie hopped on the computer first and broke through the terribly easy password Roman had set. When she was on she sent a message to Biggs who got to work setting up some recording software. As he did that she set up a camera near the bookshelf, between two rarely touched books.

Getting out was as easy as getting in. She hopped out the window and landed safely in their garden then hopped the fence. All of the lights on the street were out and a maintenance man was at the box trying to fix it. He didn’t look up as she passed him by and headed back to the safehouse.

\---

“Bend your knees.” Claire ordered. “Then push.”

Luna put all of her weight into the jab, pushing the fake knife into Claire’s padded gut. After a second the both stepped back and Luna shook the soreness out of her arm, pulling her left arm above her head in a simple stretch.

“Good. Let’s try it again. Watch your knees this time.”

Luna tried not to let her exhaustion and annoyance show on her face. They’d done this yesterday and every sore muscle she’d gotten then had returned twice as hard. But there wasn’t anything else to do in the apartment while they waited for the meeting so she had no way of getting out of it.

She reluctantly stood up and bent her knees. After taking a deep breath she lunged forward as hard as she could. The fake dagger dug into the padding around Claire’s middle again before she pulled back.

Prompto came into the safehouse quietly as they practiced. He dumped a fake backpack on the floor and headed for his room. Luna glanced down the hall to see that his door had been left ajar.

“Can we call it a day?” She begged. Claire raised an eyebrow but nodded and walked towards the kitchen.

Luna dropped the fake knife on the couch and headed down the hall towards Prompto’s room and knocked on the door.

“Come in.” He said. She pushed the door open then gently shut it when she was inside. Prompto had started up a handheld game which he glanced from. “What’s up?”

He moved his feet so she could set on his bed. “Nothing. I’ve just spent a lot of time with Claire and I haven’t spoken to you in awhile.”

“Your can always write to your boyfriend.” Prompto said as he started his game. “Last I heard from him he was camping out in Lucis with those other two guys.

“My boyfriend? I thought he was our boyfriend.”

“Why would you think that?”

She shrugged. “I figured since you were helping us…”

“I am being paid to help.”

“Not always.” She frowned. “Besides you’re our soulmate.”

“You’ve really warmed up to me that much?”

“Well you didn’t make it easy with the kidnapping.”

“It was a rescue.”

“From your perspective.” She leaned against his curled up legs and tried to twist a finger into her pixie cut. “So why do all this if you didn’t want to be with us?”

“I never said that. But you’ve moved to boyfriend pretty fast considering we haven’t even gone on so much as a date.”

She looked at him from “Do you want to go on a date with me?”

“... What right now?”

“Did you have other plans? Doesn’t your charge mostly sleep and play video games?”

There was a long pause where she could almost hear Prompto thinking it over in his head. Eventually he shut off his game and set it aside on the bed.

“Fine, let’s get dinner.”

She left a note for Noctis on her right bicep as Prompto got changed in his room, she figured he’d want to be in the loop for this. If Prompto noticed it as changed he didn’t comment and they headed down the elevator to the streets of the city, now cooling as the sun set.

“What do you want to eat?” He asked when they approached a busy street with a variety of restaurants. Plenty of couples were around, but it seemed to be a popular place for groups as well. With the area so busy they blended in easily.

“There.” She said. Picking a place at random. It was a busy place with loud music pumping through several speakers and a dance floor. Honestly it was more of a club than a restaurant, but they served several different types of tater tots and the bartender quickly mixed her up a sea breeze so she couldn’t complain too much. Prompto ordered three different flavored tater tots and a large soda for himself while she went to find a table. But even finding a seat in the far corner couldn’t get them away from the bright lights and the loud music so they quickly found a back exit that spilled into an abandoned alleyway and sat down on the steps.

“Why’d you get a soda?” She asked. The tots were spread out in a line between them on the steps.

“I don’t drink.” He answered simply, fingers hovering over the three choices.

“Never? Not even when you’re off work?”

He shrugged, “The Organization never allowed it.”

“They didn’t? What if you needed to on a mission?”

“Just hold the glass and don’t drink. You’d be surprised how often people don’t notice that.”

“So, you’ve just been following their rules even though they’re gone?

“Yup.” He went for the ranch flavored tots. “They’ll be back though. Groups like that are always back eventually.”

“I remember Yuffie saying something about that.” She paused to grab a handful of the ranch flavored tots for herself. “Wedge said you grew up in a Compound?”

Prompto seemed displeased with that question, but he didn’t outright frown, “You could say that. What about you? You were raised in Altissia right?”

“Don’t deflect you know exactly where I was raised. We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“Well it sounds like you asked me on this date just to ask a bunch of questions.”

“That’s what a date is Prompto.” She deadpanned. “We’re supposed to get to know each other.”

“I guess…” He sighed. “I’ll tell you some stuff if I get all of the sriracha ones.”

She pushed the cardboard boat of the sriracha and honey flavored tots to his side. “What was The Compound like?”

“Like a boarding school I guess. It’s where we were trained in all sorts of stuff.”

“How did you end up there?”

She immediately had a feeling that she shouldn’t have asked that question. Prompto’s looked down and he had to force himself to swallow.

“I was purchased.” He said after a long moment, “Don’t know where from.”

“That’s terrible.”

“It’s not that bad. There are worse places I coulda been sold to.”

“I suppose. It’s funny though, you don’t seem like someone who’s been a child soldier. You come off too nice.”

“What were you expecting? If someone was callus and apathetic they wouldn’t make a great assassin.”

“I suppose. Do I still get more questions?”

He shrugged. “Shoot.”

“Have you ever thought of leaving?”

“You don’t leave espionage work. You just retire and live in some hole in the ground until you die.” He said casually as he reached into his pocket. “Hey, I have a question and I’ll trade you this brownie for it.”

He held out a brownie wrapped in plastic wrap with the bar’s logo stickered onto the back to keep it sealed.

“Where did you get that?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

She held out her hand, “Fine. What’s your question?”

“Have you ever had sex with Noct?”

Luna nearly dropped the half unwrapped brownie she was so shocked. Her head snapped up to see Prompto with one large, shit-eating grin on his face. She reached over and smacked his arm which he allowed to happen with a loud giggle.

“What the hell Prompto! You don’t ask a lady such questions!”

“There’s a lady around? I haven’t seen her.” He laughed louder and turned his back to her as she began hitting harder.

“You’re such a rude ass!” She yelled, punctuating each word with a hearty smack.

“Answer the question! You agreed!”

She huffed and furiously unwrapped the rest of her brownie. “Yes I have.”

“How was it?”

“You only get one question.” She crammed the brownie into her mouth until she could feel her cheeks strain. “What about you Mr. Nosey? How’s your sex life been?”

“I haven’t had sex.”

“You haven’t?”

“Nah.” He said. She was shocked by this news which must have shown because he started laughing again.

“Not even for a mission? You’ve never had sex with a target for anything?” She asked after she struggled to swallow the brownie.

“You have an awfully sexy view of contract murder Luna. Shockingly most people don’t die when they have sex.”

She rolled her eyes and tried not to blush at being called out like that. “I can’t believe your a virgin. That’s so lame.”

“We can’t all be so easy princess.”

She threw the crumpled up wrapper at him. It bounced off his shoulder and into the pile of greasy tot trays.

“Someone’s not getting laid tonight.”

“Oh no. However will I survive.” He gathered up the trays and threw them in a trash can. They returned their glasses inside then headed back out. The streets were a little more empty since people were slowly migrating towards entertainment or home.

Luna reached over and grabbed Prompto’s hand. It was as cold as hers in the chilly night, but she didn’t let that stop her. “Boyfriends hold their girlfriend’s hand you know.”

“Oh really? I thought they held their girlfriend’s feet…”

“You’re such an ass.” She laughed as she rested her cheek on his shoulder while they walked.

“Maybe I’ll just hold your stomach next time.”

She snorted. “Hey, how do you feel about PDA?”

“Very uncomfortable.” He said. His voice was light as if he were joking, but she had a feeling that she shouldn’t push him.

Everyone was asleep or otherwise busy, so the safehouse was dark and quiet when they entered. Before Prompto could get too far away Luna grabbed the back of his neck and planted a big, fat kiss on his lips. Pulling away as quickly as she came to catch sight of the shocked look on his face.

“Was that your first kiss?” She teased.

Finally she saw a blush spread across his face. “No! But it’s the first time I’ve been kissed by some brute. Were you trying to bite my lips off.”

She shrugged, “I’ll get it better next time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my tumblr: ithinkicanwritesometimes


	13. The Powder Keg

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All I can say is that I hope this is coherent and everyone can follow because I totally didn't know what I was in for when I started this thing.  
> My writing tumblr is: ithinkicanwritesometimes

Things moved quickly after the meeting. The Admiral spent only that night in the city before heading out to his other patrol. Biggs watched the entire meeting through the cameras, compressed the footage down, and sent it to the buyer. But as a backup Aranea still wanted whatever physical documents they could get their hands on so ten minutes before Yuffie’s shift ended she took a few sewing pins from the visiting tailor and picked the lock to the Duke’s office.

It was an easy extraction. Roman didn’t lock anything up and no one came to bother her. Work had been done early so she was easily able to lock up and walk out the front door like a normal employee, drawing absolutely no attention to herself.

She was undisturbed on her walk back to the safehouse where she immediately stuffed the documents in a sealed envelope for Aranea to send off to their mysterious employer. Yuffie dropped that and her report off to Aranea who gave the relevant information to Claire and Wedge, both of whom headed out soon after. She would either get extra information then dispose of the Admiral in the waters of Accordo and that would be the end of their side contract.

Aranea assembled everyone for an update, which could be summarized as: Everything’s on course do what we’ve already discussed. Cindy had one day to prepare before she was scheduled to kill the daughter and she immediately broke off and started running battle plans with Prompto and Biggs in an attempt to nail down something good and concrete.

“Let me know if there’s any changes.” Aranea said, leaning over to whisper discreetly. “Tell someone. We don’t have room to mess up.”

“I know, I know.” She said, “Don’t worry.”

\---

The weather was a bit overcast when the two arrived at the motel for their typical meeting. Cindy watched them from a perch across the way as she always did. Biggs had hacked into the street cams, but none came out to this area specifically so she didn’t get an update for the last five miles of their journey. She thought it interesting that they found a perfect spot away from prying eyes, but without surveillance information on the rest of the city she couldn’t get a pin on how intentional a decision it might’ve been.

She let them get on with their activities as usual, keeping an eye on the entrance but otherwise giving them privacy. This was less a kind last gesture and more pragmatic. An autopsy needed to show that they had their DNA all over each other to really solidify that they’d met and it was intimate, and letting them get it on meant she didn’t have to go and do it for them.

After thirty minutes she walked across the street, wearing a leather jacket and beanie to distinguish herself from previous looks as she carried a small, brown box to the lobby. She was minimally outfitted with a knife in her boot, several different types of syringes, and a few illegal substances. This wasn’t a target she could get fancy with.

Inside the lobby a single, tired looking man sat behind the desk. He didn’t react to her approach nor to her setting the package down on the desk.

“Hello.” She said neutrally. “I have a package for the gentleman in room 153. It needs to be opened immediately.”

“I’ll let him know.” The man drawled. He didn’t look up or even take the box so she stalked out and waited for him to do his job.

Safely back in her hiding spot, Cindy pulled on gloves and a face mask as she watched the man slowly type away at his computer before finally picking up the phone and dialing to the room. Some more time passed until the boy left the room and headed down to the lobby. Cindy caught a brief glance at Faren before the door closed confirming that she was still in there and unaware.

Once again Cindy crossed the street, now towards the door to their room. She knocked twice on the wood before it was quickly opened by a barely decent Faren who seemed a little annoyed to see her.

“We didn’t order any- ” Cindy reached out and forcefully covered her mouth with her gloved hand. Faren was shocked, hands reaching up to pull Cindy’s arm away but she wasn’t strong enough to do so. Cindy pushed her inside and kicked the door closed.

Faren’s clawed at the leather sleeve of Cindy’s jacket to no avail. She ruthlessly shoved her target to the bed then pulled out the knife she’d hidden in her boot. Faren tried to kick her away, struggling so hard that she didn’t immediately react to the blade sinking in between her ribs and piercing her frantically beating heart.

Blood stained the borrowed shirt of her boyfriend, leaking into the bed as the adrenaline from her struggle pumped big globs of blood out of her body to stain the sheets of the bedding. When she was too weak to scream Cindy removed her hands and went towards the door.

Jarod came in eyes slightly down as he read the fake letter from his former dealer with a laser eyed intensity. He didn’t notice her immediately so she was able to get an arm around his neck and kick the door closed fairly quickly. Knocking him out was more difficult, however, as he immediately reached for the knife in his boot. Cindy quickly reached for the heavy lamp and struck him in the head. Doing that a second time left him unconscious.

Dressing up a scene was something she felt very comfortable in. She quickly got Jarod in position near the bed then set to work laying down the scene. The lamp went near Faren’s dominant arm before Cindy pulled out a medium dose of cocaine she’d brought along. Jarod had a myriad of pinpricks on his left arm, though he’d been attempting to tone it down in recent months. Therefore the one she gave him was fresh and stood out amongst the healing dots.

Afterwards it was the little details. Some of Jarod’s skin under Faren’s nails to show that she had struggled. Some marks on his arm to reinforce that narrative. Without blood flow going injected Faren with a drug would be pointless not to mention she didn’t have any sort of history with substance abuse, so Cindy dusted some around her hands to show that she’d at least handled some then spilled some on the counter and batted some to the floor as if someone tried to get rid of it all. The needle itself was flung across the room as were many other things as if they were thrown around in a fight. She got a little creative with how they were placed, but in the end they told the story she wanted. Jarod used, Faren protested but not enough to stop him, a fight, an altercation, he stabbed her, panicked then passed out when the drugs completely hit his system.

She didn’t call the police or really alert anyone to the scene. It would draw more attention to herself than what was necessary. As it was Jarod dug himself a worse hole then what she’d left him. After she’d left Jarod woke up ten hours later and attempted to cover the crime he hadn’t committed, and when he was caught so much of the evidence pointed to him that he was immediately condemned by Faren’s parents and the community. Law enforcement spent a few hours the next morning investigating, finding all the little clues she’d left before cleaning everything else. The news broke around lunch time and by then Yuffie had already confirmed that the family had found and and were, understandably, devastated.

“Go on ahead to Tenebrae with Biggs.” Aranea said when she handed the report in. Cindy watched Aranea’s eyes flick over down the hall towards all the rooms. “And take Luna with you.”

\---

“I don’t know how you’re going to make this one look like an accident.” Aranea joked. “Might not be an option at all.”

They sat in a secluded booth of a diner across from the campus watching Dario go about his daily routine with the expected amount of lethargy and grief. Two days had already passed and funeral preparations for Feran were already being finalized by her grieving parents. So Dario didn’t have much else to do besides go to class and cry in bathrooms. Prompto tried to think up a way to stage an accident in those conditions, but even with experience he couldn’t get in and out quickly enough to do that. Accidents were always difficult to pull off even with the most careful planning. A little miscalculation and a sharp eyed investigator would notice foul play.

“I was actually thinking of pinning it on someone else.” He said, “Not the act but the order of it. Get them off our tail for a while.”

“They’re not on our tail. But it’s a good idea, a lot easier to pin it on someone else then to dodge the blame. But who can we pin it on? Jarod’s gang wouldn’t have the motivation, but those protesters don’t really have the resources to order a hit.”

“Well don’t make it look professional then? Like some noob just got lucky.”

She sighed, “I don’t know. Might cause a riot or just might make security that much tighter.”

“Maybe both.”

“I’ll let you decide. If anything we’ll send you in after the parents too since those complicated, in depth murders have always been your specialty.”

“Well then, seeing as how I’m the one carrying this team. I want a raise.”

“Why, want to treat Luna to more than cheap tater tots?”

Prompto felt the blush rise on his cheeks too quickly for him to stop and will away. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “I thought you were asleep.”

“Well she’s not exactly quiet. I’m sure you would’ve gotten away with it if you started dating someone with your skillset.”

“She is my soulmate.”

“So what? Are you really expecting this to work out?”

His face was still red, he could feel it, but now it was red both from embarrassment and annoyance. He would loathe to admit Aranea was ever right about his personal life.

“Look don’t worry about it. I know what I’m doing.”

“No one ever knows what they’re doing.” She said snipily. “Are you even equipped to handle this Prompto?”

He tried not to bristle at the comment, “I’m fine.”

“Well I hope so, I don’t need some apathetic broken shell right now.”

The conversation, thankfully, ended with that. Aranea paid for the meal and he was sent out into the world to complete his end of the mission.

Dario had an evening class that he apparently was going to since Prompto found him on campus poking at some food he’d purchased from an on-campus restaurant. He looked understandably terrible, especially up close. His eyes were red rimmed and set with bags. His body seemed to be moving through molasses with how he dragged his feet to dispose of his barely eaten meal. Killing him wouldn’t be hard, getting out would.

Prompto could always get him at his sister’s funeral, last he heard it would happen in a day or two. It was a solid plan that he could fall back on, but that added unneeded pressure on one event and increased their odds of failure so he didn’t 

Instead he waited. He let Dario sit, do some homework, then head to his last class for the evening. Prompto spent that time getting ready, having Aranea forge a note and finding a few pieces of clothing he could wear under what he had in case he needed a quick change. When Prompto arrived back on campus with the note he headed on over to the shop classes, picked the lock to the supply closet, and stole a phillips screwdriver. Dario sat through his last class of the evening before heading out. Prompto purposefully passed by him as Dario left the building so that he could snatch Dario’s wallet from his back pocket.

No one else was scheduled for the room after Dario’s class ended. So Prompto was free to wait around and pretend he was studying from the math textbook he’d just purchased at the student store until Dario came wandering back about a half hour later, face a little frantic and shoulders slumped.

“Have you seen a wallet here?” Dario asked.

Prompto shook his head. “Sorry, can’t say I have.”

Dario resigned himself to actually looking around the class. Prompto waited a moment and let Dario find the wallet where it had been wedged under a chair near Dario’s seat. When Dario ducked under Prompto stood behind him and pulled out the screw driver. Dario bumped his head on the seat above him as he pulled out, the pause allowing Prompto the chance to reach over and cover Dario’s mouth with his hands before he jammed the star shaped end in Dario’s back.

As expected Dario screamed through the hand, but he wasn’t prepared to fight back or defend himself. Instead he crumpled to the ground and flailed weakly. Prompto quickly yanked the screwdriver from his back and plunged it back in again, then again, and again. Until Dario’s back was a bloody pincushion quickly leaking out blood as Dario’s heartbeat dropped and he went still. Prompto dropped the note on Dario’s back, letting the corner soak in blood to more convincingly pass it off as an accident, then quickly left before some janitor could wander in and find them.

Not many people were left on campus, but Prompto still ditched his jacket in a gutter on his walk back to the safehouse. It wasn’t the most perfectly executed assassination, but he didn’t hear any police sirens on his way to the safehouse so he could confidently say that it went well enough.

Prompto sat and watched the story unfold on the news. Biggs was ready to wipe anything substantial from the police database, but early into the reports it became clear that wouldn’t be necessary. The police sketch was far off from what Prompto looked like and they were already searching the neighborhood on the opposite end of the university for him showing that investigators had picked up on the bait and were kicking down doors of the local protesters.

“Kill confirmed.” Aranea said, as the news reported on the scandal. “Guess it’s just the parents next.”

\---

Sitting in the lower town bars the day after was quite enlightening. Yuffie leaned back and watched the revolutionaries react to the news of Dario’s passing, listened to their anger and worry grow.

“The police came pounding on every door in the neighborhood looking for the killer.” A woman stated. “Dragged three people out of their homes and took them to the station. Haven’t heard from them since.”

“They started asking everyone in my apartment building if we had any information. Stayed around for eight hours drilling everyone before they would leave. I was late for work because of them!”

The stories were varied but all the same. With little to go on the police had taken to the bait and unleashed hell upon the poorer districts where the protestors all lived and worked. Thus far the protests against the Roman’s were localized. People with ties to Accordo and its history protested the destruction of their temple which went largely ignored as the Roman’s made the final preparations. Now the killing had pointed a spotlight on the groups and Duke Roman went on the news demanding justice for his children. In a tale as old as time the people began to resist as they were mistreated in the Duke’s quest to find answers and now the city was a powder keg.

Yuffie finished up downtown before heading back to the safehouse with an update for Aranea, but she didn’t get much time to rest before Aranea was calling them down for another meeting.

“Yuffie. I want you to go to the prisons. Incite some sort of altercation. Maybe slip a weapon into a cell or goad someone to attacking a prisoner. I don’t care what.” Aranea ordered. Yuffie nodded her head.

“They’re not going to miss out on the funeral.” She muttered to herself. “We might be able to spark a serious altercation and that’ll give us an opening.”

“Security has been doubled.” Biggs announced. “I don’t think we’ll get in close for this.”

“We’ll need a sniper then. There are a few buildings around the cemetery a sniper could get a shot in. But they’ll be stuck out there afterwards. The buildings are too close to the cemetery to get down before security can pin them.”

“I could make the shot from the broadcast tower.” Prompto said.

The broadcast tower was a forty story building located downtown several blocks away from the cemetery. It was like any broadcast tower, tall and moderately guarded. Security wouldn’t pose a challenge, it was tall enough for the cemetery to be visible, and far enough that someone could get down if need be. But if a riot didn’t cover up their deaths then it would take very little work for forensics to determine where the bullet came from with the angle at which it would enter. Prompto would have to get up quickly, erase security tapes, and get down just as quickly to not get caught.

“You’re on sniper duty then.” She placed an orange pin at the spot for him.

“We’ll need a handful of people on the ground to incite the riot. Maybe in the buildings surrounding the progression. My first thought is that it would take only a few shots for panic happen and a riot to break out. Does anyone know the emergency plans for the funeral?”

“The only document I found on it is that they’re to remain in their vehicle until the danger has passed. It’s bulletproof.” Biggs said.

“Then we’ll need someone in a car. Once the riot breaks out ram it.” She put a pin up for Biggs. “Get a nice, big one. Nothing military grade, more like an SUV. Get two. Park one right in front of the cemetery and the other from the building Prompto’s going to be at.”

“So two cars.” Wedge said as he began searching local dealers. “Stolen or purchased?”

“Stolen. Go that morning. Find something that won’t stick out. What we’ll do is wait for the procession. Then gunshots, the beginnings of a riot will slow the car down and then we’ll ram it to get them to leave. Then Prompto will take the shot. If that fails Claire and I can rush them. That will be our fall back, but that’s really obvious and we risk exposing ourselves more than we want. Once the assassination is complete we get out. Prompto you’ll drive out through the land connection over the bridge. The rest of us will group up. Me with Claire, Yuffie with Biggs. Wedge will prepare the boats for us to escape on and we’ll all meet up in Lestallum one week from tomorrow.”

“You can really tell you guys were a mop up group. This plan is so in your face murdery. Where’s the subtly.” Prompto joked. Yuffie watched Aranea roll her eyes so hard they might fall from her head.

“If you have something better I’d love to hear it.”

Prompto shook his head. Yuffie glanced up to the corkboard and gave a serious look through. There wasn’t much she could disagree with. No plan would ever be perfect, and it was better they deal with this sooner rather than later.

They packed up their equipment and moved it to the boats that night. By that morning they were ready to move out.

\---

The broadcast building, predictably, wasn’t heavily guarded. There was an emergency broadcast station inside, but it was one of the many emergency broadcast protocols set up and the main console was actually underground. So Prompto didn’t need a special pass to head upstairs. All he had to do was knock out a normal employee as he parked his car that morning and head off with his keycard.

Biggs sat outside the building to modify his I.D card and disable specific security checks on the way up before he headed off to meet with the others near the cemetery. The metal detectors didn’t picked up on the rifle he had hidden in a tool case and the cameras were temporarily disabled. Prompto took the elevator all the way up to the top floor then found a nice, empty room with a good line of sight to the entrance of the cemetery.

From there it was waiting. A lot of it. Claire and Wedge had returned that morning and he could see Claire reluctantly took her place in the crowd of protestors. Yuffie’s goading saw an innocent (he assumed) person in prison dead. All of this fed into the crowd’s anger, and the people began chanting as the Roman’s car approached.

His margin for error was small. Prompto could see the motorcade approach and the first few feet of the cemetery, but after that there were walls and buildings blocking his line of sight into rest of the cemetery. If he picked a closer he could’ve picked them off during the service, but the crowd had been larger than expected even bleeding into the downtown area and making those streets inaccessible. At this point he didn’t have any other choice but to make the too shots and haul ass out of there.

For once Prompto got to watch the chaos unfold from the outside. Aranea and Yuffie sat in separate buildings and waited for the motorcade to arrive. When it was a few blocks from its destination they let out the shots. Prompto could see it all happen through his viewfinder. He watched as the crowds shifted and moved. People swarmed on the fallen while others ducked and ran. The motorcade halted in its tracks while the police accompaniment raised their guns, barrels pointed towards the crowd.

This was the beginning of the riot. The police attempted to locate the origins of the shots, but between the people and the panic they were failing miserably. The people, scared from the sudden gunfire and now faced with guns trained on them by the police, began to move. Some people attempted to assault the cops which then caused some of them to fire their weapons at the assailants. Others ducked behind cars or fences, trying to put some sort of block between themselves and the bullets. Others still simply began to panic, screaming and running in an attempt to get to cover. The crowds shifted and moved, trampling a few people in the utter confusion.

It was this moment that Biggs was given the all clear to charge. He stepped on the gas and came barrelling out from a side street. A handful of people barely jumped out of the way in time, but Biggs managed to clip several others as he crossed the street and plowed into the car the Romans were in.

A police officer had the horrific misfortune of getting smashed between the incoming SUV and the Romans vehicle. His stomach opened up like an overstuffed coin purse, leaking his guts out into the SUV’s hood as Biggs backed up for another run. The a handful of other cops tried to shoot at him, but in the chaos they only managed to hit another protester and a few buildings. Biggs hit the accelerator and rammed the vehicle a second time. Hitting hard enough for his car to start belching out smoke and fumes from it’s busted engine.

The Romans were quickly pulled from their vehicle from the otherside by two cops in an attempt to get them away from the incoming danger. And that was prompto’s opening. There was, at best, a block and a half between where they were and the cemetery entrance, and therefore safety from him. Prompto lined up his shot with the Duke as the Duchess was pulled from the vehicle. His head was turned away from Prompto and an officer was pulling him low towards the ground beneath the car. Prompto lined up the shot with his spine, held his breath, the squeezed the trigger.

His gun recoiled with the shot, hitting his shoulder hard enough to bruise. But his shot connected and the Duke went crumpling to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Prompto quickly lined up his shot with the panicking Duchess who’d recoiled in fear from his dying husband. The officer tried to pull her closer to the ground, but she was so panicked and frantic that it was a struggle and her head was up in the open. Prompto waited until the officer could hold her down still enough for him to get a confident pin on her head and once again squeezed. The gun recoiled like before and the shot went through both the officer’s shoulder and the Duchess’ head. Sending them both down in the confusion.

Prompto immediately shoved the rifle back in its case and made a run for it. The only resistance he ran into on his run down to the security room was five guards responding to the sounds of gunfire on the top floor. The building had gone into lockdown so the elevators and power were both shut off and Prompto made contact with them on the stairs. He held back as they opened fire upwards, waiting for a lull in their shots before respond with a couple of his own downwards. One got hit, but it wasn’t enough to stop them. None of them were in a good enough spot to get a good shot at one another.

The group slowly approached Prompto’s location in a single file line due to the narrowness of the stairway, gunfire slowing down as they tried to conserve ammo. Prompto waited before he could see the man on point approach and chucked the case with his sniper rifle at him. Between the weight of the rifle and the suddenness of having that weight thrown at him the man was knocked over and thrown down a flight of stairs into several other members. Prompto poked out and fired into the group, killing the man on point and the one right behind him.

He then charged, taking the rest of the group by surprise, shooting two and pushing the last off the stairwell to fall thirty floors. Prompto began running down to the twentieth floor towards the security room. He killed the two guards inside who were expecting him, but weren’t expecting for his I.D card to have access to that room. Two bullets and they were both down allowing Prompto to destroy the server with all the security information before he could head out.

Prompto had to kill an employee on his way out, but otherwise he made it outside the building without incident. He climbed into the car and pulled a hard u-turn, driving the opposite way of the riots that were now well underway and heading north for the mountain ranges that connected Accordo to Tenebrae. Border security was increased between the two nations as news of the riots were radioed to them, but no one from the area had made it there before him so they let him through after he told him he was coming from a short camping trip with friends.

There wasn’t much in the mountain range between Accordo and Tenebrae. Prompto found a random motel in a small town that didn’t seem to get many visitors. It was fairly expensive, but close enough to Tenebrae that he could hike to the next town over and take a bus to the closest major city. He got a room and settled in for the night, content to being alone until they met up in Lestallum in a week for the next stage of their plan.

He leaned back in his lumpy bed and pushed off his shoes, it was late and he only had a few hours before he’d have to leave again and dispose of the car somewhere. Prompto sank into the sheets determined to get a few hours of rest before he headed out again, but he didn’t feel tired. The adrenaline left his systems and yet he was still wide awake, staring at the ceiling for a solid hour before he finally concluded that something was off.

The bedside table had a pen wedged in the bottom of the top draw. Prompto fished around until he found it then ran it over his left wrist until the ink started to flow.

Where are you two?

The pen went back in it’s spot and he waited for half an hour before he got a response.

The safehouse in Tenebrae. Wrote Luna

Camping in Duscae, couldn’t get into Accordo. Was the response from Noctis.

I’ll meet you in two days Noct, just got to wrap things up first.


	14. To Tenebrae

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always let me know if something seems off or contradictory.

There were only a few camping spots near Wiz’s chocobo ranch. Prompto let him know that’s where he’d show up at, but never when, so they’d shuffled through those spots as they waited for him. During the day they’d visit Wiz to see if he’d arrived, but for those first three days he was a ghost.

On the fourth day they, as a group, went over to check in the morning before heading out on a hunt that took them until lunch time. They ordered sandwiches from Wiz while Ignis took the break to shop for the night’s dinner. Meanwhile, he and Gladio debated on their next hunt. It was between a bigger beast with a higher pay, and several smaller ones with a lower pay. It was an intense enough conversation that between their bickering neither of them noticed Prompto approaching until he’d sat down in Ignis’ free chair.

“So, what’ve you two been up to?” He said as he took a sip of Ignis’ ebony.

Noctis saw Gladio tense up quickly enough to be alarming. He wondered if Prompto noticed too, but it was difficult to judge with the large sunglasses he was wearing.

“Is this the guy?” Gladio asked him. Eyes pinning him with an intense and unamused stare.

“Yeah, this is Prompto.” He said. “We’ve been waiting for you. I didn’t think it would take this long to get from Accordo.”

Prompto shrugged, “I had to take a detour.” He paused long enough to chug down the rest of Ignis’ ebony. “So we need to go to Lestallum to meet up with everyone and then head to Tenebrae.”

“Wait wait wait.” Gladio interrupted. “I want the full story before we agree to go with you.”

“How about I let Aranea do that when we get to Lestallum?”

Gladio clearly wasn’t satisfied with this arrangement, but Ignis came back before he could really protest and after some debating he decided to go along with it without any vocal complaining. That all settled Prompto was relegated to the front seat so Gladio could keep an eye out on him.

“So who is this Aranea?” Ignis asked soon after driving off. Noctis forced himself to pay attention just in case. Gladio wasn’t sold on any of this and Ignis was still stressed from his Uncle. Both of them had been very vocal about how dumb this was and he didn’t want to add fuel to that fire.

“Team leader I guess.” Prompto said. There was a bit of silence as Ignis waited for a further answer and got nothing.

“You guess?”

“We don’t have titles. But she is my sister if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Do many members of your family share your career path?”

“.... Sure.”

“And have you been in this profession for a long time?”

“Yes.”

The rest of the car ride went exactly like that. Prompto gave unhelpful, one-word answers to Ignis’ probing questions. It was very uncomfortable to the point that he found it more pleasant to focus on how sore his butt was sitting in the car for hours on end then listen in.

They arrived in Lestallum as the sun set. Ignis started calculating funds to see what kind of room they could afford, but it was slim pickings. Most of what they had was earned from hunts, and most of the hunts were simple, short tasks with a small reward. They still needed a bit more time before they could take the bigger stuff, and until then they were mostly pinching pennies.

“We all have to be here by the end of the week, so not everyone will be around.” Prompto said. Even though the sun was half gone his sunglasses were still planted firmly on his face. The square was busy as young people met up and families went out for a meal or to the variety of entertainment spots. The lights flooded the square until it was almost blinding and Prompto set off with little warning. Noctis followed him through the crowd.

Wandering through Lestallum to search for this random person he didn’t know was fairly annoying. Prompto seemed to know where he was headed, but didn’t communicate that with either him or Gladio leading to a few times where they almost lost Prompto in the crowd. But it only lasted until Prompto found his teammate, and by the time they caught up with Prompto he was deep in a conversation with a girl in hot pants and a headband.

“Had to split up with Biggs when we hit land.” She said as they made it towards the two. The girl’s eyes immediately snapped to them as they approached and she pushed away from the wall of the cafe, “These your friends?”

“Yeah the tall one is Gladio and the other one’s Noct.”

“Gladiolus.” Gladio corrected. Neither Prompto or the girl reacted to it.

“I’m Yuffie. Where’re we eatin’?”

Noctis didn’t have to look over his shoulder to know that Gladio was growing more frustrated. He could feel it come off in waves from Gladio’s body. But that didn’t stop Gladio from following them towards a restaurant in the rear of the square where they both ordered an alarming number of skewers.

Thankfully Yuffie pulled her wallet out when the bill came and didn’t ask them to pay for anything, that seemed to please Gladio somewhat. All three of them were struggling with the lack of funds but Gladio seemed the most stressed by it. Ignis had a plan that they’d managed to stick to and Noctis was content to letting Ignis do that, but Gladio would look in on the numbers too. He probably had several new grey hairs just from the empty sight of their wallet.

“Biggs should be here on the last day. He said he wanted to grab something at the safehouse before coming over” Yuffie said, “Where are you staying?”

“I haven’t decided yet.”

“You can stay in a room with us?” Noctis offered. He didn’t dare look at Gladio’s face to see how he’d react to that.

“Thanks, but no thanks.” Prompto said, “I’ve got a weird sleep schedule going right now.”

They ended up parting ways and Noctis got an earful from Gladio for inviting Prompto to stay with them, which he supposed he deserved. Ignis had found them a room at the Leville for them to stay at and they all silently picked a spot to sleep in.

Noctis fell asleep with ease, but found himself waking up late into the night with a confused start. For a moment his brain was too foggy to really figure out why he was awake again. He propped his head up and glanced around the room. Both Ignis and Gladio were asleep, and he didn’t see any proof that someone had wandered into their room during the night.

Murmured voices filtered up from the help desk on the bottom floor. Noise wasn’t unusual since they were in a hotel, but given that the leville was so small he had a feeling he knew who it was. Noctis stepped over Gladio and tipped toed towards the door, opening it to find Yuffie and Prompto passing by with separate keycards.

“Whoa, you’re up late.” Prompto whispered. He genuinely seemed to be surprised by this. Yuffie passed by both of them and silently headed to her room leaving them alone.

“Well you guys were loud.”

“No the guy downstairs was. Why are you up anyway?”

Noctis didn’t really have an answer to that. He was just as surprised as Prompto. He opened his mouth to deflect and tell Prompto goodnight before he caught sight of the deep bags under Prompto’s eyes highlighted by the moonlight.

“You look tired.”

“Yeah well I got held up on the way over.”

“Held up how?”

“Border security wasn’t letting anyone through after the incident so I had to find another way in.”

Prompto didn’t elaborate on that and Noctis thought twice before deciding that he shouldn’t ask. A hotel hallway at midnight wasn’t the best place to have a conversation like that anyway.

“Well goodnight.”

\----

Prompto figured that sticking around in Lestallum might draw unnecessary attention, especially after what he had to do to get into Lucis, so he reluctantly found himself crammed in between Gladio and Noctis on the drive out of town for a hunt. Yuffie got the front seat and she cheerfully jabbered away as she kicked her feet back and forth, flaunting her legs space.

“We’ll be hunting a group of saberclaws.” Ignis said. “Shouldn’t be too difficult for you two if you’re quick on your feet.”

“Aww don’t worry about us.” Yuffie said, “We’re professionals.”

They were not professionals.

Ignis parked the car and it was a short walk to where the saberclaws had made their home. Most of them were initially calmly lying under the shade but two were standing up and at attention. Initially Prompto thought this would be simple. Lay a few traps, agitate a few, kill the slower ones, and let the traps handle the rest.

But then Gladio charged in. Clearly they all were on different wavelengths.

Prompto attempted to keep up with them, but a saberclaw set its sights on him and charged. He screamed as he ducked, narrowly dodging its claws by mere inches. It pivoted and charged at him again, this time going low for his legs. Prompto grabbed his gun and let out a few shots before sloppily getting out of the way. He scampered back to put a few feet between himself and the saberclaw but it was a wasted effort. A bullet had grazed it’s shoulder which didn’t stop it from racing at him again and shoving a paw full of claws into his arm. The attack left three sizable gouges on his arm which would’ve inhibited his aiming if he wasn’t, by now, running mostly on adrenaline. Prompto raised his gun up and fired two shots before the saberclaw could charge again, planting both between its eyes and watched it collapse to the ground.

Around him the battle was mostly over. All but one of the other saberclaws were dead. The last one was getting finished off by Gladio while Ignis and Noctis helped Yuffie up from the ground.

“I got one!” She yelled, as she raised a bloody hand up in the air with a whoop. Noctis grabbed her shuriken from the ground as Ignis helped her towards the car.

“Man I thought you two were supposed to be assassin’s.” Gladio said, the saberclaw now dead several meters away from them both. Prompto frowned as he looked up at Gladio’s unimpressed face.

“I’m going to murder you in your sleep.”

He didn’t make any friends with that performance, but thankfully that meant he and Yuffie didn’t have to go on any more hunts with them. Instead they had the job of searching the area around Lestallum looking for anything edible they could eat for dinner. They got distracted several times by random beasts or just by getting lost, but they managed to come back with a bag full of peppers, mushrooms, potatoes, and onions.

“Tired of eating out or something?” He joked as he handed the bag off to Ignis.

“No, there just won’t be a restaurant at the campsite.” Was the short reply.

Prompto’s fight or flight response kicked into overdrive at the mention of a campsite and he almost bolted to the nearest town, but it was almost dark and Yuffie seemed entirely enamored with the idea of camping out.

“How close do the daemons get at night?” She asked, “Will they get right up to the edge?”

“Nope. They stay far away cause of the lights.” Noctis said. He spread out on the ground, looking just a hair’s breadth away from sleep as Yuffie leaned over the edge of the haven.

He and Yuffie didn’t have to help much in getting the camping equipment setup since the other three were very used to it. Ignis got started on the meal as they set up while Prompto lounged on the grass and listened in. The sun was beginning to set in the distance so he tried to enjoy the last moments of physical freedom before he was trapped on a small camping site with four other people. He sat outside the haven as he ate his serving of stew until it was too dark to sit outside any longer.

Noctis went to sleep first, not in his sleeping bag but in his chair, while Ignis tried prying some other information out of Yuffie. Gladio headed in when the fire snuffed out. Ignis then woke Noctis up and they both went inside the tent to sleep.

“This is so cool, it’s been so long since I’ve been camping.” Yuffie said. She laid on her back to look at the few stars they could see through the lights of the haven.

“I’ve never been.”

“Never?”

“Not that I can remember.”

“Is that why you’re so tense? Or are you worried about sharing a tent with another person?”

“Yes.”

“Oh you’ll be fine, it’s only for one night.”

“You don’t know that!”

“Well if it bothers you that much we can get a caravan or something some other night.” She sat up. ”I’m going to bed, goodnight.”

Prompto stayed out to watch the stars for another hour before attempting to sleep in one of the tents. The only one with remotely any room had Noctis sprawled out in the middle and Ignis laid out in a straight line in one corner. Prompto took a spot on the other side of Noctis and tried to sleep.

He failed.

Ignis’s nose whistled something fierce and outside their safe haven he could hear twigs snapping and the occasional snarl from a feral animal or daemon. In the other tent Gladio’s snoring sounded suspiciously like gravel being spun in a blender. Every once in a while he’d snort then be silent and Prompto thought that would be the end, that Gladio had spontaneously died then and there, but then he’d pick right back up again.

Noctis took one look at him in the morning gave an amused smile, “Camping not up your alley?”

\---

A hat and some thick eyeliner did wonders. The waitress at the rundown diner barely even recognized she was human as she took their orders. Luna almost felt like cheering when the woman walked away unaware of who she’d spoken with.

Their decision to eat here was partially a test of Luna’s disguise and partially practice for her to blend in. Don’t look down or hide behind the menu, that’s suspicious. Act normal, don’t ask questions, drink your tea.

“This is level one.” Cindy said. In the corner the broken jukebox began playing a song from forty years ago. “We’ll practice again somewhere else where everyone’s more aware.”

“But what happens if I’m noticed?”

“One isn’t a problem, just say that people are always mistaking you for someone else. The problem is when a lot of people notice.”

“I see…”

Their meals came in pools of grease that Luna had to resist patting down with a napkin. Eating was part of blending in, unfortunately. People would notice if she daintily dabbed at her soggy fries.

After their little exercise it was a long walk back to the safehouse, which stood on the edge of the more decent neighborhoods. Luna could see parts of the palace from one of the few windows. Could watch the MT patrols and some of the General’s comings and goings. Biggs had Cindy set up a wiretap and some cameras in some of periphery rooms, but for the moment they’d been having trouble getting into the main office or the General’s room.

General Tarn didn’t have a consistent schedule, at least not one they could find since they’d arrived over a week ago. None of them could sneak in as staff since all of the normal staffing work was now done by MT’s, and the General only came out sporadically at best and rarely spent too much time in one place.

“He’s paranoid, I’ll give him that much.” Cindy said as they both watched the General arrive late one night. “He might be communicating with someone.”

“How can you tell?”

“I can’t really, but if he were he’s doing it smart. No two places twice, always a decent amount of people around. Blends in for the time he’s there.”

“But we don’t see him writing messages.”

“If he were then it would be something unique to the area. Like when he went to get coffee, he would get a message on the cup then maybe reply by how many creams and sugars he uses.”

“What info would he be getting?”

“My money he would be getting information on your whereabouts. Maybe an update on Ravus. He’s certainly not preparing for an invasion. They’re probably telling the people that they’re keeping you safe too.”

That didn’t scare her like she thought it might. The lies that the Empire could weave and feed the people with were far from new. But she felt better knowing that they were floundering. Intel from Bigg’s informant told them that the Emperor was shocked over the Duke’s family’s death and he was in a fit trying to figure out what had happened. The Empire’s delicate equilibrium was already disrupted.

“We’ll know more when the rest get here and we can start a real investigation.”

\---

Aranea was at a bar when they all got into town. She took Noctis aside and began planning for how to get into Tenebrae, then pulled Ignis over when Noctis was horrifically unhelpful. Wedge arrived around lunch time with Claire, who had a substantial knife wound on her arm that she didn’t even seem to notice. With everyone there the decision was to split up and head into the country in separate ways. 

It was reluctantly decided that he, Noctis, and Aranea would go by boat together, a decision that made him hear sirens in his head. Aranea’s body language and voice didn’t betray any attempts at foul play, but he was willing to bet money she was up to something. Ignis, Yuffie, and Biggs would head in via car, and Gladio would go with Claire on foot and other public transportation.

Wedge found them an overnight cruise leaving the Galdin Quay port that evening. Since Ignis, Yuffie, and Wedge were taking cars they all got crammed into the back for the long drive to the port. Conversation flowed more freely after introductions so much so that even Ignis seemed to have relaxed. They arrived at Galdin Quay in the early evening and Prompto watched Ignis give a few hurried warnings to be careful before he drove off.

Noctis immediately headed off to the fishing spots that apparently were dotted along the shore leaving him alone with Aranea at the restaurant.

“Don’t give me that look.” Aranea said. They’d ordered some fries to share but so far she was the only one eating them. “I know what you’re thinking. This wasn’t part of my master plan, and I’m not going to do anything.”

“I haven’t been giving you any kind of look. You’re just projecting your guilty conscious.”

“I don’t feel guilty about anything.”

He didn’t rudely call her a liar, but he did flash a rude gesture at her when she asked the waitress for more mustard. He left before the urge to say something overtook him and spent his time at the shops before they boarded the boat.

They didn’t get any weird looks while boarding. There were other groups of friends who were packed for a vacation getaway in Tenebrae, but between the kids running around and the couples waiting for some alone time they weren’t an interesting enough sight to notice.

The cruise had established an entire itinerary for the evening, splitting the parents with kids away from the variety of younger people and couples on opposite ends of the boat. Prompto was torn. Aranea would certainly spend a few hours at the dinner and movie event, might even go to the dance for an hour or two. And if he didn’t go then she would force Noctis to go with her.

He didn’t want to think of them spending time alone.

“And what would you like?” The waitress asked. Behind her the title screen of the movie was just up and running, but they wouldn’t start playing until the waitresses has finished taking orders and Aranea was still trying to figure out if roe tasted enough not like fish to be palatable. Noctis had taken his newfound freedom to order a large serving of fried chicken and mashed potatoes while Prompto just ordered a few raw oysters.

“Uhm. I’ll just get what he’s having.” She gestured vaguely towards Noctis. The waitress noted that down then left. Soon after the movie began to start.

Prompto leaned back and tried to get invested the storyline, but it was an old, cliche action flick with the same contrived plot as all the other action flicks and he kept glancing back at Aranea and Noctis to make sure nothing was happening.

The wine was passable. Noctis seemed pretty content to sipping it as the main character was introduced in a flurry of cuts and loud music. Aranea’s eyes scanned the room likely out of pure instinct. He would sit through the movie and hopefully that would please Aranea enough to keep her from harassing Noctis too much.

Or she would jump on him during the dance once he wasn’t around to stop her.

\---

This wasn’t exactly how Nocits pictured getting into Tenebrae to see Luna but he wasn’t about to complain about it. He hadn’t had the chance to see the movie and his food wasn’t half bad. The cruise was nice enough that he almost forgot that they were only here to get into another country to kill people.

Prompto went to their room shortly after the movie was over. Noctis would have followed if not for the arm on his wrist keeping him firmly seated.

“You both can’t go at the same time.” Aranea said. “It looks weird.”

“Oh…”

She let go of his arm and he ended up following her to the main hall. By now all of the kids were asleep and the parents who could were already dancing to the string quartet set up. There was more wine and drinks that he now was no longer interested in. A few tables had been set up in the corner and a few couples were already sitting down to people watch and drink.

Granted they all seemed to be over fifty, but he didn’t mind sitting with them if it meant he didn’t have to dance with Aranea.

“Hey since I’m paying shouldn’t Prompto have to sit down here with you?” He joked. Aranea had brought him a glass of wine, which he let sit, and herself a cup of ice to crunch on. Her arm was around the back of his chair to give off an aura of familiarity that made him feel a little uncomfortable.

“Sure. Write to him to get down here.”

She sounded serious, but he didn’t make any move for a pen.

“Is something wrong with him?”

“Why do you ask?” She demanded.

“I dunno… he just seems quiet.”

Her eyes tracked a man as he stumbled towards one of the crew members. “You’ve known him for less than a month.” The man tripped and puked on the member’s uniform. Noctis had a suspicion this party would wrap up very soon.

“Technically I’ve known about him for over a year since that incident with the Duke.”

“Sure…” Her mouth split into a smile as she watched the two people stumble and the crowd part. “He feels awkward because we’re meeting and I disapprove of a relationship with you and your girlfriend.”

That was surprisingly blunt. And hurtful. Noctis didn’t know exactly why it hurt, it’s not like he had a vested interest in her opinion. But the flippent way she said it, all while watching some guy puke his guts out, as if she were talking about her least favorite color of notebooks or informing him that she didn’t buy short socks because they slipped into the heel of her boots.

He had the feeling that she didn’t have a soulmate herself. It wasn’t unusually, most people didn’t, and sometimes those people didn’t seem to recognize how serious it could be. Sure you could just not write to one another, but they were call soulmates and not pen-pals for a reason. Most people with soulmates ended up with them.

Sure Prompto was a hitman who‘d gathered a lot of information on them before they knew he existed, but that was slowly becoming less and less of an issue as he continued to help them even after their disastrous introduction.

“Why? Afraid we’ll hurt him? Did you hold me back so you could threaten me?” He figured that’s usually how these things went.

“Nope.” In front of them the party began to slow down. The violinist announced that last song of the night, but people were already beginning to file out.

“Then what’s the problem?”

“You wouldn’t understand.” She stood up. He followed her out of the entertainment hall down to their room. The clock on his phone let him know that it was just past midnight.

Prompto had taken the bed closest to the window. He slept on the left side of the bed which could have been an invitation or just a weird quirk, but Noctis wasn’t eager in taking the open spot and finding out.

“Do you want the bed?” Aranea’s voice was neutral.

“Nope, I’m fine on the floor.” He grabbed a spare blanket and laid down on the scratchy carpet.

“We arrive at eight so be up by five.” She collapsed onto the bed. “We need to be ready to leave.”

“Greeaat.” He groaned as the light was shut off and the room was bathed in silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check me out at ithinkicanwritesometimes over on tumblr.


	15. The General

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of what's here might conflict with earlier chapters which is poor planning on my part. Just let me know if you notice something and I'll try to address them either in the comments or in a future chapter.

Arriving a day ahead of everyone, unfortunately, didn’t afford her any luxuries. Her advanced crew had almost nothing useful. No list of contacts, no information on why he was here or what he was doing. Biggs hadn’t even been able to hack into Niflheim’s records to see what they were doing. Their entire report filled half a page.

“I think he’s communicatin’ with someone.” Cindy said, “But we haven’t found a pattern yet.”

“He hasn’t been using the phones?”

“He has, but we haven’t been able to tap them. He has no schedule neither.”

Aranea sighed. Prompto or Yuffie could probably get in and out just fine, but as she looked over at him, Noctis, and Lunafreya she had her doubts. Prompto had been operating just fine with his work, but he’d been acting strange since Insomnia. A little more withdrawn, a little more contemplative. She didn’t know if it was Noctis, Luna, or even both of them together. Couldn’t tell if they made him uncomfortable or nervous. He was slowly becoming a wild card again.

“We’ll wait for Yuffie to arrive before we head into the manor.” She told Cindy. “Until then we’ll rotate observations. Next time General Hayes goes out Prompto and I will follow him, you and Biggs will follow him back.”

With the strategy arranged she thought they might need to wait a while, but they only waited six hours before the general’s car was seen leaving the manor. She pulled Prompto out of bed and they both made a fairly silent car ride to a local, noisy sports bar. The general parked his car several streets away and walked inside where they followed and took a table not too far away.

“Can I get a whiskey neat? And a boat of spicy wings.” She said to the waitress who came to take their order. Prompto had ordered a large serving of fries and a beer.

Their target kept his eyes on the game as he quickly drank his first beer. A few people entered after their waitress left, but none of them approached the general or even seemed to notice him. The general had only one other person sit next to him. A girl who kept prattling on about her life story. Aranea thought that maybe this would be a good start except the girl paid her tab and stumbled out before their drinks arrived.

Prompto sat across from her, face neutral as he slumped in his chair and tapped his foot. That was fairly unusual for him. She was familiar enough with his idiosyncrasies to know that something was bothering him.

“Is something wrong?” She asked.

“What makes you think something’s wrong?” He said unconvincingly.

“Because I have eyes. Did something happen with you and Noctis?”

“You’re obsessed with him I swear.” 

He was irritated, she could hear it in his voice and see it with the way his eyes stared determinedly at the screen over her shoulder. She decided to drop it and pretend to watch the game as their drinks and food came.

“Hey.” He said after the waitress left. “What did your file say?”

She raised a warning eyebrow. “Just progress reports and therapy notes. Why?”

He shrugged. Another pause before he tentatively asked, “Was part of your therapy working with me?”

“No. But it sounds like you figured out yours was.”

He shifted quietly. “Yeah…”

“Is that what’s been bothering you? Are you really so surprised, every decision they made ultimately was to suit them.”

“It’s just… It’s just really weird to think that it was all just some big plan.”

His behavior was starting to make more sense now. Before he came to visit they'd been nice enough to inform her that by her psych profile she would be the "most effective" in "fixing" a problem they'd had with an agent and that was all the explanation they gave her on the subject. They'd been fairly explicit in their orders that if he asked why he was there to tell him that they'd ordered it and to leave it at that. Back then Prompto didn't do much of anything that wasn't an explicit order so when he was told not to question something he did not question it. But the Prompto now was far removed from the Prompto he'd been all those years ago. Now he actually cared.

“Listen, Prompto.” She hesitated. “I wouldn’t have dragged you along if I did like having you around.”

She could feel herself choking up on the words. It was difficult for her to speak sincerely, but Prompto’s shoulders softened and he relaxed more in his seat.

“Yeah. I know.” His eyes followed movement just behind her head. “Our guy’s leaving. He’s had four beers.”

They’d only been here for half an hour, and he seemed to have been so engrossed in the game. She resisted turning her head to confirm.

Prompto sent a text to their relief while she ordered another basket of wings. Cindy and Biggs followed him back to the manor, but he didn’t do anything of note.

\---

Noctis wanted to cheer at the chance to talk with Luna again, but he hardly spent a night with her before he was whisked away to a hastily procured secondary safehouse set up across town. Soon the only people he had around to talk to were Biggs and Gladio. He was beginning to think Aranea enjoyed being a cockblock.

“It’s a nice city.” Gladio said as he wrote to Ignis on his forearm. They had clearly established plans to meet up and go on a short date that evening. Noctis had attempted to plan out the same but neither Luna nor Prompto had responded to his few inquiries.

“Yeah sure a great city.” He whined. “I love just staring at it from this window and listening to this guy type.”

“Don’t be rude!” Biggs yelled from the other room.

Noctis slumped further down into his seat with a big, loud sigh. “Why did I do this?”

“Because you’re an idiot.”

“Not this again.”

“Well you are. This all has been a half baked idea that you’re lucky hasn’t blown up in your face yet.”

“Thanks Gladio, I love these little lectures.”

“And I love imparting my wisdom to the foolish. Stop complaining I’m sure there’ll be a chance for you to violently unleash your pent up sexual frustration on some random stranger.”

“... I wish you didn’t phrase it like that.”

Gladio snorted and went back to debating on restaurants with Ignis. Noctis tried to ignore it all with a few rounds of Kings Knight but those few rounds soon turned into a few hours of playing which only stopped when his phone ran out of battery. Once again bored Noctis tried to write to Luna and Prompto again before settling on pouting while looking out the window again.

It took a couple of hours before Noctis got hungry enough to actually get up and look for food in the pantries. He found a can of both chicken and beef chili, neither of which he could decide on before Biggs walked into the room.

“Who here wants to help me out with something?”

Gladio’s hand remained firmly on the table as he determinedly refused to make eye contact looking very much like the kid in class who didn’t know the answer. Slowly Noctis raised his own hand.

“Great. We need to go now.”

“Uh. Okay?”

“Well, I guess I have to go.”

“Great, more the merrier, but try to blend in.”

Biggs had Noctis wash the gel from his hair then made them both change into plain sweatshirts and jeans before he would allow them to leave the apartment. They walked down the streets, careful to not be too fast or two slow, careful to not look at the road signs or gawk at the scenery. Biggs did not hesitate to swat at both their arms when they got too caught up in their new surroundings and began to look like lost tourists. 

Eventually they ended up near the manor, standing a fair distance away from the building itself outside a fence that had been installed. Several lights had been set up to illuminate the grounds around the manor as MT’s patrolled just outside the fencing.

“You have these magic powers right?” Biggs asked.

“Yeah?”

“Cool.” Biggs pushed an earpiece and eight tiny cameras into his hand. “We’re installing these to look at patrol patterns one at each corner on the manor roof and at the middle area.”

“Uh.” He looked back at Gladio who shrugged. Clearly he wasn’t getting out of this. “Okay I can do that.”

“I’ll need to confirm the connection.” He pulled out a laptop from his bag, “Don’t move until I give the all clear.”

Biggs got comfortable in the grass as Gladio busied himself with the utterly useless position of lookout. Noctis felt his heartbeat suddenly speed up as he pulled a dagger from the armiger and flung it towards a corner of the building.

Warping was a familiar, almost comforting rush, that ended with him stuck at the top of the ledge dangling over MT’s and just barely above the light. He scrambled up onto the thin railing and planted his feet carefully to keep himself still. The camera had a sticky backing to it. He cleared off some of the green foliage then stuck it facing outwards where it could look down at the MT’s and up towards the manor.

“Okay… okay… we’re clear.”

He immediately chucked the dagger upwards towards the roof of the manor, sticking firmly on the edge and once again scrambling up. The rest of the cameras were installed much the same and, thankfully, went by without alerting anyone. He felt drained when his feet touched the ground near Gladio and Biggs, however, and he collapsed onto the cool grass as Biggs wrapped up his laptop.

“Alright, I’m hungry. What do you all want?”

“Whatever we get give me a lot of it” He panted.

\---

There hadn’t been as much surveillance done as Yuffie would have liked, but this was far from her first time breaking and entering. What patterns and patrols she didn’t know she managed to guess with a decent level of accuracy. Slipping inside the building went easier than expected.

A camera in each hallway, several in the meeting rooms, a single one put in one specific place in the General’s bedroom. Most of the rooms had been cleared out so there were very few places a camera could hide, but also very few places where the camera wouldn’t be able to look.

MT’s patrolled the halls, but their numbers were significantly less than what they all had expected. Yuffie kept out of their sight with ease as she made her way down from the top floor. Prompto had started from the bottom and they both were supposed to meet in a closet near the middle. She slipped inside just before their meeting time and waited half an hour, nervously sticking her head out every few minutes to see if he were nearby. Eventually she left the closet entirely and began looking for him.

There hadn’t been any sounds of a struggle or an alarm. She couldn’t fathom why Prompto would take so much time in the lower floors, most of them were just ballrooms or servants quarters. She went halfway down the first flight of stairs and listened for anything that might give her more details and heard nothing so she climbed the rest and began searching that floor.

Fewer MT’s patrolled this floor then the last so she had an even worse feeling that something had gone wrong. She slowly worked her way through the halls, opening and closing the doors to empty rooms. Time was not on their side, and she wasn’t entirely prepared to leave him if she had to.

The door to an office was cracked open, she slowly pushed it back to find Prompto standing over a desk flipping through a thick, manila file.

“What’s that?” She asked quietly.

Prompto sighed, more exasperated then alarmed at her being here. “You remember the theater incident?”

“The what?”

“When we kidnapped Luna?”

“Not particularly. Why?”

“Well I killed a man who was working as their spymaster there, he was a mole for Niflheim. Turns out they have a new spymaster and he’s using a lot of this guy’s old notes.” Prompto held the file up to her to show a picture of Luna at the diner mopping up grease from plate. “He’s got all of her idiosyncrasies and a small profile on Cindy.”

“Do they know where she’s at?”

“No, they’ve just confirmed that she’s in the city. I think that’s why the general goes out so irregularly, to communicate with their field agents.” Prompto grabbed several papers from the file. “We should go.”

They took their exit from the fourth story, shimmying down the side and landing right behind the patrolling MT. They had just enough time to get away before it turned and found them. Prompto scaled the fence first then hoisted her up and they were home free just a few minutes later running into the lights of the town.

They set up shop at a tea house to make sure they hadn’t been followed. Yuffie went and bought two oolongs and a plate of cookies as Prompto went over the files he’d stolen.

“When did they make the connection?” She muttered.

Prompto shrugged, “Cindy said that on their first day he visited a Gralean restaurant at noon. Since then he hasn’t gone to that restaurant or gone out at that time. That may be part of his coordination and a sign that they noticed she was here afterwards.”

“We need to keep you-know-who away from her then. If they find them together…”

She watched him grimence. “This was a bad idea. Letting them tag along.”

“Nothin’ we can do about it now.”

\---

Luna would be the first to admit that her internal clock had been smashed to bits weeks ago. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept before eleven and woke up before noon. Which was probably why it was so jarring to be woken up at six in the morning.

“Luna.” Prompto said. “Come on, I swear you’re getting to be more and more like Noctis every day.”

Indignation is what made her sit up. There were very few things she enjoyed less then being considered as lazy as Noctis.

“What do you want?”

Prompto dropped some papers onto her lap. Her vision was blurry still from sleep so the words looked jumbled and fuzzy. “The general knows you’re in the city, Aranea’s trying to figure out what to do.”

Luna felt her stomach drop and her eyes suddenly clear. That was more of a wake up call then she was expecting. She looked up at Prompto to see how bad it was but his face was unsettlingly neutral. The papers, now readable, made everything seem worse. There weren’t any pictures, but they listed off little quirks even she didn’t know about herself. Notable things about her voice and how she spoke, a scar she’d gotten on her hand, irregularities in her walking and running. They were so detailed it felt invasive to read.

“Who would get this?”

“Your old spymaster probably. Look if you want input into what happens now is probably the time. They’re all debating right now.”

“Do you know what they most likely will choose?”

He shrugged, “Lockdown. Might have someone stay here with you, we don’t really have the resources to get you out of town on our own. If we have to we’d have to call in extra help.”

She slowly got out from her bed. “Then I suppose that will be fine.”

“You’re pretty calm about this?” He gathered up the papers, “I was expecting more panicking.”

So was she. Though she wouldn’t put it past herself to finally process it all and have a panic attack in an hour or so. “I’ll just have to trust you guys. It’s worked for me so far even with the kidnapping.”

She couldn’t make out what Prompto replied with since it was a low mutter, but she figured it was his usual protest about the label of kidnapping. It didn’t make her smile as much as she thought it would.

It was hard to take it all in. The wall of safety had been broken, logically she should be panicking and worrying. She hadn’t left the safehouse much since the back up team arrived and her days were filled with reading and tv. Whether or not she got caught seemed completely out of her hands and the magnitude of it didn’t weight on her like it ought to.

“Where’s your trident?”

“In the closet.”

He crossed the room and pulled open the closet door. She hadn’t used the trident in months since she hadn’t really needed to. Prompto pulled it out and tested the tips for an edge, then spin it around a bit.

“You can probably use this.”

“For what?”

“Defense. In case you don’t have another weapon.”

Yes she could, but no she did not want to. She reached out for the trident which he handed over. It was relatively heavy. She could lug it around and carry it easily, but it was too long.

“Use it like a polearm.”

“I’ve never been trained to use a polearm.”

“We’ll teach you. I think Ignis knows how to use one. Cindy too probably.”

“I suppose.” She attempted to twirl it like he did only to miss it entirely and watch it drop to the ground with a loud, jarring crack. “I’d rather just use the knife Claire gave me.”

“That’s fair…”

\---

The general’s phone always rang at noon, and he always answered at noon. Sometimes he’d wait at his desk doing busy work until it rang and then leave after he hung up. He still went out, mostly to the bar for an hour or so at night. They all spent shifts at that bar trying to figure out who he was talking to, but couldn’t find a person he’d spoken to or even a note passed. He never wrote anything or spoke to anyone.

“I have an idea.” Wedge said as the tapes rolled, the general’s back was facing the camera more often than not. He never walked around his office while on the phone like most people did. “I think the places he goes to are the message.”

“How so?”

“It’s a really old thing we used to do when we would stake out more contested towns. I remember doing it when I was really young up in Eastern Niflheim. An agent’s safe house might be in one area and they might see something out the window like a supermarket or a cafe. To pass a message a known agent would visit the area and just mingle, and what they did and for how long would be the message, like, if they went to the market and bought three apples then left that might be a message that there are three agents staking out their apartment or something. I think he’s doing that.”

“What would he be messaging now though?”

“Well when we first got here he was going to cafe’s and such, only when we’d been here for a few days did he start exclusively going to bars and we know that he knows Luna’s in town even though he doesn’t know where. So I think that’s the message. Or at least part of it.”

She could feel herself sigh. Her entire brain was tired from trying to figure this out and she couldn’t tell if Wedge’s theory was even plausible or not. Either way she stood up to grab her coat. “That’s as good a theory as any. I’m going to go look at the apartments nearby.”

Prompto seemed to be very comfortable supervising Luna’s crash course in basic polearm techniques. So she was glad to drag him along out into the cold streets of Tenebrae to look at low-income apartments.

The apartments on the west end of the bar were short and perfect for a crouching agent who needed a good line of sight to the bar’s entrance. The area around the apartment was busy with people passing by so Yuffie was confident they were inconspicuous. There were just enough people around for them to blend in, but despite that she saw a man pause when he saw them then hurriedly turn back into the apartment complex.

“What is this amateur hour?” Prompto joked.

“I love it when they do our work for us.”

Ideally they would come back at night, but they didn’t know what the man would get up to in the meantime so they crept up to his apartment on the second story. The window faced into the courtyard of the complex so that minimized how many people would see them although they were sure to not linger too long. Yuffie pulled out a hair pin and had the door unlocked quickly. She quickly pushed the door open.

As the door swung open their guy came charging. He swung a heavy duty kitchen knife which she just managed to duck. Prompto charged at him when he overextended his attack and knocked him flat on his ass, kicking the kitchen knife out of his hands before he could right himself and come to. She quickly found a kitchen cloth and stuffed it into his mouth as Prompto used the cable of his lamp to tie him up.

She didn’t ask the man anything until they’d searched the apartment. The entire place was sparsely decorated, but they didn’t leave one area unchecked or stone unturned. There were no cameras or bugs, but Prompto found a small shoebox hidden in a crawl space.

The box contained notes taken about their activities, though most of the individual reports were just a few sentences long. They’d clearly managed to do their jobs well enough since there wasn’t anything important written. There weren’t any addresses or descriptions of buildings written down. But they managed to get some detailed information on Biggs and Cindy. Most of it was mode of dress and major physical features. There were logs of Luna’s sightings, twice at a diner and three times while out shopping. Yuffie investigated deeper inside the crawl space to find several guns and a plain, white keycard.

By the time they were done the agent had stopped struggling and was watching them with anger simmering in his eyes. She made eye contact as she rooted through his drawers until she found a pen.

“Prom, I’m going to get Vinnie down here.”

\---

Shit got done when they called Vincent. Aranea wasn’t surprised to walk into the apartment two days after they apprehended the agent to have a neat stack of paper giving a full detail of what the agent had said and Vincent’s notes. It detailed every concoction, every question, every little response the agent gave during his twenty-four hour session.

Everything that she needed.

On the couch Yuffie sat with Vincent’s feet in her lap. His eyes were closed, but she doubted he was sleeping. She sat down at the table and began going through the transcripts.

The transcripts detailed the agent’s daily routine. He was not in direct contact with the general. The general gave instructions by showing up at certain locations and relied on his agents to spread the message. Those agents communicated with dead drops to each other, but there was one who was allowed to call him every day at noon and give updates. There was a page that detailed the schedule and locations of all the drops the agent knew.

“Forge something. Say that you saw Luna leaving the city around midnight with Biggs and another agent.” She handed off the file to Wedge. “Tell them anything to get them off our tail. Have Cindy stake out a dead drop and get information on that informant.” She then turned to Vincent and Yuffie. “How much for disposal?”

Vincent didn’t open his eyes, “I’ll kock five thousand off if you give Yuffie a night off.”

“That’s fine.” She turned to Wedge. “Stay here with Cindy to fill in for the agent. Keep me updated.”

“Yes ma’am.”

She burned the files before heading back to the main safe house, feeling much more stress-free now that they’d made serious progress. Her mind was already turning as she mentally cobbled together a rough plan.

Back at the main safehouse Prompto was trying to pull Luna’s spear from a wall. A sight that she found funny if only because she were in such a good mood. She silently watched him struggle as she tried to think up a good sarcastic comment to say when Ignis stepped in and tried to yank it free. In the end she said nothing as Ignis’ hand slipped and he ended up elbowing Luna in the eye. There was no topping the sight of that.

She left the chaos in the living room to find peace in her office where the cork board sat. The set up work wasn’t as complete as she would’ve liked, but it was clear that it was now or never.

\---

Sometimes Prompto got nervous when he had to wait around in the field. Today was that day.

He and Yuffie had wedged themselves into a hiding place near an entrance to the manor and had to wait until the signal. No timetable had been given for it so there they sat, two hours in and freezing. Prompto absently rubbed at his arms as Yuffie shivered. Neither of them had been prepared for the temperature to suddenly drop or for the chill quickly seeping into their jackets and soaking through their boots.

“What’s taking so long?” Yuffie moaned through chattering teeth. “Those idiots are probably lost.”

“Do you have a pen?”

“What you think Noct and Luna knows what’s up?”

“No.” A violent shiver overtook him. “I just want to write my last will and testament.”

“Holy fuuuuuu-”

Yuffie was cut off as a giant explosion rocked the supports of the bridge leading up to the manor. The impact rocked the manor as the suspensions broke and some of the railings fell. Near the entrance the MT’s were worked up into a frenzy that was quickly made more chaotic as Lightning and Aranea cleared the holes in the bridge and charged into to slice through the first MT’s they saw.

“Fucking finally!” Yuffie violently shoved the window open and they ducked inside. The warmth of the manor brought little comfort, however, as they ducked to the shadows to avoid several MT’s sprinting down the hall.

“He hasn’t left his room.” Wedge said over the comms. “Another patrol will pass through the hall and then you’re clear.”

He heard Yuffie hold her breath and a moment later the footsteps of a group of MT’s. The steps got louder and louder, then softer and softer. They popped out their hiding space after the MT’s passed and raced down the hall.

They’d studied the map of the manor, they knew exactly where they were going. Straight, straight, right, left. A door. A big door. Locked and bolted from the inside. The general was smart, he knew that they were coming and had taken precautions. But he wasn’t smart enough to take the right ones. Prompto set the timer for thirty seconds and they both ducked down behind a sofa. The much smaller charge went off as they ducked behind, cracking the door and blowing off one of the hinges.

Yuffie raced in so fast she unintentionally dodged a bullet shot from the general’s gun, but the shock wasn’t enough to stop her. She cleared the distance between the door and the general before he could recover from the recoil and plunged a knife square between his eyes. The general’s body slammed into the floor with a thud, his mouth gurgling and body twitching as death quickly overtook him. Yuffie yanked the knife out and plunged it in the general’s throat, sawing it up and down until the head came away from the body.

“Target down.” He said into the comms.

“You have a minute.”

Easy part out of the way they both raced down the halls towards the entrance of the manor. By now Aranea and Lightning were knee deep in the fighting and a pile of dead MT”s was beginning to form in the courtyard. He and Yuffie landed in the busy courtyard as the jamming signal went off and all of the MT’s went offline.

“We’ll meet you at the rendezvous point.” Lightning yelled. Both she and Aranea peeled off in the other direction towards where their bikes were parked.

He and Yuffie just barely managed to make it to the car as the jamming signal went offline. Prompto barely had his door closed when Wedge stepped on the accelerator and they sped down towards the city.

“We’re going to have to take a detour around town. Something’s happened at the safehouses.” He hurriedly said. Behind them shots were fired as the MT’s slowly went back online.

“Why?” He yelled. “What happened to the getaway?”

“Fuck if I know! Just be ready for anything.”

“How do you fucks fuck this up?” Yuffie yelled. “I shoulda stayed with Wutai!”

\---

He had the fun task of emptying the apartment with just Biggs since Gladio got to go on a last minute outing with Ignis in the morning. So his entire body was not in the mood to move come that evening. He lounged against the pillows of the couch as he watched the manor through the window. They weren’t supposed to leave until the manor exploded. He didn’t know why, that’s just what they told him.

“Does it feel weird having them tell us what to do all day?” He asked Gladio.

“Spoken like a true princess right now.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that I’ve had to follow your orders practically since I was born.”

“You’re exaggerating. You became my shield at twelve.”

“Close enough.”

“No it isn’t!”

The explosion interrupted their typical exchange. They watched as pat of the path crumbled and fell as they waited for Biggs to give them to go ahead. A moment later, however, the doorbell rang. Noctis would’ve gotten up to answer it if Biggs didn’t shoot up from his chair in frenzied alarm.

“Ah shit, shit, shit.” He pulled a small switchblade from his pocket and flipped it open. “You guys got weapons?”

“Yeah, but-”

“Shhhhhhh.” He slowly walked up to the door and looked through the peephole. “Get ready.”

Gladio got up first and pulled out his sword from the armiger. A moment later Noctis noticed Ignis’ daggers had also been pulled. He didn’t get the chance to process the implication when the door was swung open and Biggs let out a yell.

Two agents were at the door. Biggs had lunged for the first one who side stepped his attack and rushed in. Gladio immediately swung for this man who rolled under the attack. Noctis had only a second thought before he pulled out his sword and blocked the knife that had come for his face.

Gladio’s second swing came harder and faster, cleaving the man in half when he’d pushed back for a second lunge. His top half hit the wall on the other side of the room while his bottom half collapsed onto the floor.

Noctis dove past to go after the other agent, but Biggs had already give the man six new holes to worry about. Time went by fast as they all raced down the steps down the steps towards the car. He dove into the back seat as Biggs started up the engine and quickly raced out of the parking area.

\---

Luna had the unfortunate luck of being crammed in the back with Aranea’s spare lance crammed under her legs when they were stopped suddenly at the end of the street. She peeked up over Cindy’s shoulders to see a very drunk man being slowly helped across the street by his friend.

“Honestly, it’s only eight in the evening.” Ignis complained. Besides him Cindy looked less annoyed and more concerned as she slowly backed up to turn around and go out the other end of the street.

The street was relatively small so she backed up slowly as she struggled to see what was directly behind them through the equipment piled high in their van.

Luna leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes, then opened them when Cindy stopped suddenly enough for the car to rock.

“GET DOWN!” Cindy yelled, as the two pedestrians opened fire. Luna barely processed the order as she ducked her head. Her heartbeat sped up almost masking the sound of the bullets flying through the air where her head had been.

There was a pause in the gunfire. Enough of a pause for Cindy to step on the accelerator and violently turn the wheel. They clipped a street lamp as they went over the sidewalk. She righted the car near the end of the street only two hit two other pedestrians who were about ready to open fire. One of them went under the car making the inside violently bump and the other got knocked to the side, splattering blood all over the right side of the car.

Cindy didn’t stop. She barrelled through intersections and stop signs, nearly hitting other cars and roadblocks in her mad dash to put distance between them all. None of them spoke as she passed through the downtown area towards the freeways, completely ignoring the turnoff that would’ve taken them towards the water and the boat they had purchased.

Just a few more blocks until they would have been safe on the freeway when a car came speeding into the intersection, running a red light in an attempt to block their escape. They barely just collided as the other car clipped the back bumper sending them into a short tailspin as Cindy furiously attempted to right the car. Their front ended up pointing down the street the car had come from, and before she could turn another car blocked them in.

An agent came out of each car. Cindy waited until one approached her door before she kicked it open. It swung and knocked the agent over. Ignis, on the other hand jumped from his seat to engage with the second in the street. He knocked the gun out of the agent’s hand but failed to avoid the knife in the agent’s boot. It dug deep into his shin cutting through tendons and knocked Ignis off balance.

Luna made a split second decision. Cindy was in no position to help, and the agent sliced through the arm Ignis used to block a kick aimed at his stomach. Luna grabbed her trident from the back of the van, threw herself from the car, and charged the agent. She didn’t register the resistance as her trident pierced the agent’s rib cage, or the resistance as she pulled it out and lunged again. Only the blood on the ground, the fuzz in her head and Ignis’ hands as he helped her pull the trident out and load back into the car.

She went back into the car with a strange level of calmness as she concentrated on not looking down at the street or at the horrified looks of the people in the intersections. Logically she knew it was dangerous to show up like this. Someone might recognize her. But once again the weight of the situation, the events that she should react to, did feel real enough to elicit any sort of panic or response from her. She barely had the energy to keep her eyes open and watch as they left town, drove for hours and hours on the freeway until they headed up into the mountains.

Ignis silently wrapped up his wounds. Luna felt like she should help, but she couldn’t bring herself to look over and see the blood. She did hear Cindy offer him some sleeping medication which she assumed he used since he didn’t say anything as they drove through the mountains.

Late into the night she heard a phone go off then Cindy’s even voice as she spoke. Luna felt herself dip in and out of the conversation, not really registering everything that was spoken as she watched the scenery pass.

“I can call in a few favors too. We’ll get it cover up… Ignis is injured… we’ll head north I know there’s an abandoned safehouse there… I’m going to ditch this in an hour when we get to the next town… Alright be safe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to spend three chapters in Tenebrae, but ultimately I figured that Aranea and everyone would be too smart to not pick up on what was going on. And I was eager to get onto some more interesting stuff.
> 
> Check me out on ithinkicanwritesometimes.


	16. Down Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So  
> So....  
> It's been a while. And this is a little light on the murder. But don't worry, if you came here for the murder then the next few chapters will have plenty of this. I have not abandoned my roots.

It would be a while before they could move Niflheim. Their sloppy exit had gotten them in trouble. Investigations were ongoing, and scenes had made it onto the news. They kept their ears to the ground and their eyes on the screen to see if anyone had pieced together any part of what they did, but thankfully the speculation was not even near reality. No one knew where they had gone or what they looked like. They were, for the most part, safe in the safehouse.

Prompto was not looking forward to their living situation. They’d arrived at a coastal town far from anything else, and the safehouse itself was a fair distance away from either that. It had been purchased when they first went freelance and was not designed to handle more than the entirety of the The Furies because, ideally, that would be the most in one place at a time outside of missions. But instead they’d picked up almost double the amount of people since then. Prompto would rather lay in a bed of needles than share such a small amount of space with so many people, but that was what he would have to do anyway.

The usual set up in the kitchen/living area. Prompto arrived to find several computers, sensors, and cameras scattered on tables and the ground. Biggs nursed his cup of coffee, bags straining his eyes. When the rest of the group arrived they’d set up rotations, but until then Biggs was the only one trained to handle the constant stream of information.

Prompto slept, and when he woke up the rest of the team had arrived and Yuffie was watching the feed. Mostly everyone was asleep, despite the sun high in the sky.

“Could you set up some cameras in town?” Yuffie asked. She held out several palm sized cameras out for him.

The town was a good hour long walk from the safehouse. Prompto took his time walking there.

The town was fittingly small and remote. It had a town hall in the center and a sizable pier. He set cameras up at the town hall as well as near the single, major roadway. There were no major freeways that connected the town and only one roadway lead directly to civilization. Prompto did a walk around to get a feel for the area before heading back.

When he returned Ignis and Claire were awake. They seemed to have bonded quickly as they were talking in hushed, quick whispers to keep from waking people up. He left them to it.

Prompto wanted to lay low and spend his time hiding away from the house. It was easy at first given how everyone was still recovering from Tenebrae. He could come and go without anyone caring, and the freedom did make it easier for when he was in the house. But he was cornered several days later by Noctis as he was heading out to explore the chilly beach nearby.

“Hey, Luna and I wanted to go to town. Do you want to come with?”

“Uhm…” Prompto let the air fill with an awkward pause. He should say no. He wanted to say no. He’d been feeling closer to them both for a while, and that wasn’t where he wanted to be. What good was there to building that connection once again? It wouldn’t do him any good. He’d just have to say goodbye again.

“Sure.” He answered.

He kicked himself as he waited for Noctis to grab Luna. She came down wearing some of Yuffie’s borrowed clothes and the three of them walked the hour long path to the town. It wasn’t full of awkward silence like he expected. Noctis carried the conversation for the most part while he and Luna occasionally chipped in. It was strange. She seemed more sullen then usual, and Noctis seemed to not notice or give a damn. He expected Noctis to have a lot more tact given how long they knew each other, but for all he knew Noctis was the type of guy who needed that kind of stuff explained to him.

The day was just getting started for most people as they entered the town. A long line had formed outside the coffee shop and people hustled to and from homes to work and school.

Noctis turned to him and said, “You want something to eat guys?”

“Sure?” He said. Besides him Luna shrugged and crossed her arms. A response outright dismissive that Noctis seemed to stubbornly refuse to acknowledge.

Prompto didn’t know what to do. Luna was clearly troubled by something, but he’d never had to comfort someone before. He didn’t know if he could. It would be a lot easier if he were expected to do something. If her problem were a person or a thing then that was a problem he could solve. But this? This was like trying to solve a math problem without any equal signs.

“That ice cream place looks nice. You want ice cream Lu?”

“Sure.” She said. The first time she responded to someone without looking at the ground first.

The ice cream shop was popular. Already there were plenty of people walking in for a simple cone or small sundae. Several tables were set up, but most were empty as most people left to enjoy their treats outside.

Noctis stepped up and ordered a sundae with five scoops. Vanilla, strawberry, peanut butter, blackberry, and rocky road. Two scoops of chocolate syrup and one scoop of caramel. Extra whipped cream and peanuts. He did so with a practiced ease. Without needing to turn and ask Luna what she wanted, and Prompto decided that if this was how one handled Luna’s bad moods then he might as well follow along and take notes.

They took the monstrosity to a table and let Luna take the first, large scoop. Which was taken from the pile of rocky road. Prompto didn’t dare touch that or the blackberry and vanilla. This seemed to be the right move as Noctis only kept to the strawberry and peanut butter.

“Did you catch anything yesterday?” Luna asked Noctis after the entire ball of blackberry was consumed.

“Just a small trout.” He said. “Not much around here.”

“I heard there was a lake nearby, maybe you could go there?”

“I dunno Lu, might be too far out.”

“You’re probably right.”

The conversation didn’t stray too far from very light topics. Shopping, books, fishing. They went through it all by the time Luna finished. When she did polish off the last bite she set her spoon down and squared her shoulders, looking suddenly more confident then she had before, even if she wasn’t near one hundred percent.

“Want to take a walk to the docks?”

They cleared out and took what Prompto had expected to be a calm walk to the docks. That thought was quickly dashed as the crossed the road, however.

“Prompto do you remember the first person you killed?” Luna asked.

It was an unexpected, and frankly unwanted, question that Prompto was utterly unprepared for. A question that suddenly made him feel raw and sick on the inside. But this wasn’t the first time Prompto had been faced with a question he didn’t want to answer.

“Nope.” He said as nonchalantly as he could. “Why?”

“Because I had to kill someone in Tenebrae. As we escaped.”

“Oh.” He tried to say with feeling. Even to his ears that sounded flat. Prompto genuinely felt lost. Luna’s feelings were understandable. He supposed that a civilian would find it difficult to process all of what killing is, but the filling was so foreign to him that he didn’t know what to say. His first kill had been traumatic, sure, but not due to the act of killing.

“Mine was a couple years ago.” Noctis said. “We were training outside of the wall and got attacked.”

“That’s understandable. It was self defense.” Prompto said.

“But it’s still terrible.” Luna replied. “It doesn’t feel good to take a life. I don’t know how you do it so easily.”

“It’s a job.” He shrugged. Prompto tried to not sound completely flippant, but he knew he did despite the effort.

“But you don’t feel anything?”

“No. It has to get done. If not by me then by someone.”

Luna’s mouth formed a smooth seam. They didn’t breach the subject again that day. Instead they all split up to look for seashells. Which ended with them all holding little chips of broken, vaguely-seashell like things. Despite that Luna seemed much more happy on their walk back towards the safehouse.

\---

Prompto tended to stay up late and wake up early when a lot of people were around even if there was no chance of them coming into his small room. The more people around, the more he tended to feel pinned down and cramped. He dealt with this by going for a walk when people in the house started waking up and then going on another when they started all arriving back in the evening, typically not returning until most people had gone to bed. He’d picked a nice path along the beach that no one seemed to visit at those times.

One evening that path was a little less empty than expected. Not far down the beach he spied Noctis with a line and tackle Prompto had not seen in the luggage. This wasn’t too surprising, the powers of Lucian royalty were not secrets, but seeing Noctis awake at this hour was.

“Trouble sleeping?” He asked.

Noctis shrugged. “Nope. Thinking too much. I’ve never had so much free time.”

“Not up to spending it all with Luna?”

“She doesn’t want to spend all of hers with me. She needs time to herself.”

“I see.”

“... So, what are you going to do after this?”

“I dunno. Go to bed probably.”

“No, this. Like the whole mission or whatever.”

“Wait for a new mission.”

“So business as usual?”

“Yep. Assuming I live.”

“That’s cheerful. You’re not interested in a vacation at least? Some down time?”

“No. There’ll probably be some down time anyway. Aranea would need time to rustle up some new work. Why do you ask?”

“...Well...” It was now that Noctis dusted off some invisible dirt from his fishing rod. “Luna and I were wondering if you wanted to try a relationship? Like, after. When this all blows over…”

That gnawing feeling again. Sudden and insistent. Prompto could understand it now. The feeling of conflict. The mental battle between some unidentified want and the very clear should. He wanted to say yes, but he should say no. Instead all he said was:

“I’ll have to think about it.”

\---

Noctis did not know exactly how that conversation went. Sometimes Prompto was very open with his thoughts and sometimes he seemed to be biting his tongue. Noctis couldn’t tell which one this was.

He let Luna know the next morning. She seemed a little relieved that he was the one to ask, she had been distracted lately and at this point Noctis just wanted her to worry about as little as possible. Neither of them told anyone else. Ignis and Gladio would disagree with this decision and the assassin likely had very interesting opinions that he didn’t want to hear.

Prompto tended to disappear during the day, and that didn’t change after the proposal. Noctis thought it would, but the next morning Prompto was gone and no one knew where he’d gone off to.

“He just don’t like gettin’ cramped up is all.” Cindy said as she set some cookies on a rack. Next to her Ignis was whipping up some cream cheese frosting for the cupcakes. Honestly Cindy and Ignis were the two people keeping everyone sane in the three weeks since their arrival.

“But should he head out alone so often?”

“I suppose not, but Prompto’s like Yuffie. They’re trained to work alone.”

“Has Prompto always acted alone like this?” Ignis asked. Noctis knew that Ignis only asked because he wasn’t happy with how little he knew of the situation.

“It’s his specialty. But he’s managed to handle being in a team well all things considered.”

“I see.” Ignis said. He set a plate of cupcakes on the counter. The action allowed Noctis to read the thick, black letters written on Ignis’ wrist.

**Bring cupcakes!**

**plz**

“You gonna bring that up to Gladio?”

“Of course not.” Ignis pulled out a pen. “I’m going to have him walk. He’s been getting fat anyway.”

\---

The town was the site of a relatively notable taffy factory. In the summer it was the main site of tourism, but in the off season it was very empty. Wandering around inside and watching the taffy machine do its thing was a welcome change that Luna didn’t know she needed.

“Can you bake taffy into a cookie?” Yuffie asked. The gift shop at the end of the tour boasted a variety of types including a flavor made from a local radish.

“It would melt?” Claire said, not sounding confident in her statement.

“Hmm, I’m going to buy a bag for Cindy to bake.”

The factory sat near a beach. They all took their bags of candy down to the san. Yuffie tore into a bug of mixed flavors than shoved three different types into her mouth.

“I’m going to miss this place.” Claire sighed. “No one’s attacked or even pinged our radar.”

“Das bahd.” Yuffie slurred. She painfully swallowed her food. “They could be here and we won’t know!”

“Shut up.” Claire sighed. “I actually like my down time.”

Luna swallowed a strawberry flavored taffy. “But we have to leave right? When will that be?”

“Soon probably.” Yuffie toed off her shoes. “Tenebrae and Accordo have actually sent things into a tailspin into the capital. Vinny said that there’ve already been senators challenging the emperor, someone hired him to torture a guy’s son, and he’s noticed more activity from organizations like Brutus. You know, the usual.”

“Perhaps for you.” Luna said, with more bite than intended.

“I’m going to just enjoy this candy while I can.” Claire said.

They carried their haul back to the safehouse where it was doled out to the masses. Gladio had been cut off from sweets so Luna hid a handful of the stuff in his bag and collected the ten gil as they agreed upon.

She and Noctis found a nice spot outside the house to share half a bag of blueberries in relative peace.

“So, we're at the last stretch.” She said. Noctis nodded solemnly.

“Apparently they’ve started a bet on who’s going to die.”

“That’s grim.” She said. “What’s the odds on Prompto?”

“Wedge put 100 gil on everyone getting injured and Cindy said Prompto and Yuffie would die cause they’re idiots. Then everyone laughed because that’s what they think of as a joke.”

She sighed. “I just want this to be over.”

“Me too.”

\---

Standard procedure for organization handlers and field agents was to not meet face to face unless necessary. When necessary there was an entire book on the specifics within the field. An entire chapter dedicated to hand signs and code words. Though sometimes it was a lot easier for an agent to simply sit next to another and begin talking.

A tall, blonde haired woman in a red shirt sat across from him. She was unfamiliar, which was a red flag given how long he’d spent in this small town. “Do you mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is full.”

Behind him the couple at the table got up. The woman did not move to change.

“This coffee place was a nice idea Mr. Argentum.” The woman said. “I don’t usually come here.”

Prompto snapped his book shut and leaned back in his chair, absolutely not attempting to play along with this strange woman’s games. “What do you want?”

The woman did not even waver in her charade. She smiled politely like a soccer mom or retail worker. “Mr. Argentum, my team would like to thank you for your service. If you would like to continue working with us, perhaps in a great role, please consider our offer.” She said as she pushed a thin envelope to him. She then reached into her pocket and look at her phone. “Oh, it looks like my boyfriend is calling me. Sorry to bother you.”

Prompto didn’t open it up at the cafe. Instead he finished his coffee and headed to the hidden stretch of the beach not far from the safe house. He sat in wet sand as he opened tore open the letter.

Agent

We would like to offer you and The Furies reinstatement. Negotiations open. All agent communication lines active.

The note was short and sweet. Prompto tossed into the ocean where the ink would run and obscure the message. Conflict. Confusion. Anger. Feelings that used to be foreign now suddenly felt like old friends.

He was doing so well. But then Luna and Noctis had to tempt him with the impossible. The Organization offered the safe and practical. Too many directions, too many choices. He missed when the path was laid out before him. He sat and moped for a good hour before heading back to the safehouse.

He informed Claire who immediately called and began the negotiation for The Furies. Aranea was clear that she wanted to finish this contract before they re-joined so he was not worried about them leaving suddenly, but he kept an ear on the conversation.

If they joined and he didn’t he’d be on his own. An option that was impossible to consider. Prompto couldn’t organize his own contracts. He had no skills in negotiation or selling his skills. But he wouldn’t have the freedom working for them, for any group, that compared to working freelance. To keep doing what he was doing he’d either have to grow a pair and start negotiating or bite the bullet and rejoin a group he thought he was rid of.

But what could a person like him do as a civilian? What skills did he have? The transition from contract assassin to working for the government was non-ideal. He’d have to admit to all crimes and hope they deemed his skills valuable enough to pardon them, and he doubted Regis would pardon Prompto’s actions just so his son could date a murderer. That choice also put a target on his back. He’d say good-bye to Aranea and The Furies and turn his back on all the people who’d supported him even when there wasn’t much to support.

“We’ll consider your offer.” Claire said. “Thank you for your time.”

\---

Two months. It took two months before they were all in a position to move.

Injuries were healed. Intelligence gathered. Aranea had been concerned that the capitol would piece itself back together in that time, but they didn’t. Plotting, assassinations, embezzlement, bribery. It all flooded the capitol. People would barely trust their own children. Everyone could sense that there were forces in the shadows targeting them, and in that fear they turned on each other. Several politicians had been killed in those two months, none of them by her group, and others fled the capitol all together. The Emperor’s attempt to make people calm by issuing more controls, more personal guards, and curfews only led to resistance. The people wanted their freedom, the nobles their power, and neither was budging.

Aranea wasn’t even sure if they needed to kill the emperor. Niflheim might tear itself at its seams on its own.

“You all have separated fake I.D’s with individual backgrounds. Biggs and I will go with the prince and his friends to make sure they get in safely, but I expect all of you to get in on your own and begin working. I’m particularly interested in Duchess Ella and her wife, Duchess Marina. They’re both close friends of the emperor and intel tells me that they’ve remained in contact since he went into hiding a month ago. I want where they are, what they’re doing, and anything they’d know about the emperor’s location. They’re priority, but if you find anything, anything at all, that could potentially give us an edge then I want it. The faster we get this done the faster we go home.”

The room was the familiar silence of contemplation. Everyone needed a moment to prepare mentally, and they might as well do it then. There would be no time on the road.

In the morning she saw Prompto off first. He’d enter the capital alone and be there for a few days before Yuffie arrived. They all left at around the same time, but many stayed on the road for longer before they would cross the border. It wasn’t the ideal situation, but Prompto was the most Nif out of them all besides her. He was the most fluent in the language, had spent the most time there. It was the most logical choice to make.

“You gonna be good until Yuffie gets there?”

Prompto shrugged his backpack on his shoulders, “Don’t have much of a choice do I?”

“You’re not still worried are you?”

“About what?”

“About your love life.”

“Are you worried that I’m worried?”

“Yes. Look I know you’ve never dealt with stuff like this before and I know it’s confusing. But the mission is the mission.”

“Since when did you become my mother?”

“Does it matter? I’m short staffed as it is. If you’re going to die do it in your down time.”

He snorted, and seemed amused at their usual banter. Despite herself she tried to enjoy the sight. They were about to make history in the worst way and she didn’t know if she’d ever see him, or him as he was in that moment, ever again. It was a thought too heavy for her to fully process.

“I’ll try.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to watch me talk about the Lion King Broadway soundtrack then check me out on tumblr:
> 
> https://ithinkicanwritesometimes.tumblr.com/


	17. Countryside

Crossing the border got a little sticky.

Prompto made it past the agents only to almost get mugged when he was staying at a motel in the nearby town. It was a quick scuffled that ended when his assailant was run through by a rusty pipe Prompto found nearby. He had to hide the body under the tarp of a nearby truck before the patrols caught him.

From the border it was a six day journey to the capitol. He took a bus to the local train stop then rode that to the next major city. He walked for a day, then took a six hour bus ride the next. He continued that trend until he arrived at the capitol early in the evening.

The capitol was a depressing place to look at. He’d been there several times before, one time for an entire month, and he’d never seen it quite like that. There had always been a notable police and military presence in the capitol, before it was always benign. More there to look pretty than to actually round people up or do anything. But security slowly began to get tighter and tighter the more people they killed. Now it was a police state. It was almost impossible to walk down the street without passing a patrol or a raid. Few people dared walk the streets. Those that did kept their head down and hurried passed in front of grey buildings. Some buildings were damaged from raids or street violence and were beginning to crumble. Prompto kept his head down and headed straight for the safehouse inside an apartment complex.

Vincent left some reports at the safehouse. He’d left a few days prior to handle a contract in the countryside. The reports shed a little more light on to the area. Protests to the increasing casualties between the empire and Lucis. Taxing to fund the already strained budget. The increased patrols, and the kidnapping of supposed rebels in the area. Vincent left a handwritten note stating that there had been activity from several organizations in the area either attempting to work for the Emperor and work against him. Some were contracted by his political allies and others by his opposition. The most notable were Scarlet, a small group contracted by the emperor’s cousin in his support, and treeline, a rebel group working independently. Brutus had a notable presence in the area as they specialized in gathering intel, but the organization had played both sides and was in hot water. Acts of terrorism were enacted by a group called freedom. The emperor’s personal investigation agency had two freedom agents and three agents from the group Silence which were a group employed by Jacob Spire, a political rival.

That was just the tip of the iceberg. Vincent had written a literal book on the current political climate and all the things that had changed during the week he’d been there. Prompto almost wondered if it was worth it to stick around. The capitol was clearly a lit powder keg. Eventually it was going to go down.

But he had a job to do, and do it he shall. Prompto set up the monitors and cameras at the safehouse and got to work.

\---

They stayed on the coast for two weeks before moving out. This break was not a restful one, Luna felt dread build up in her stomach day by day. It first started when Prompto left and then sat firmly in the pit of her stomach when they moved out as a group. They drove further north until they got to the train line and caught a train heading north towards Niflheim.

It was sort of calm. Aranea read a book while the guys played some sort of card game. She slept for most of the twelve hour ride. At the border they showed their fake documents, which all were examined closely before being handed back by a heavily armed security guard.

During that break where they got their paperwork checked a person two cars over was not approved. Luna saw the woman get dragged from the cart. She put up little resistance, but instead of being escorted away as Luna expected, a man brought the butt of his rifle down over her head twice. They dragged the woman’s limp body down under the platform away from prying eyes.

Moments later the train started up again, leaving the woman behind. Luna buried her head in her coat and tried to sleep for a few more hours.

They stayed on until they were two stops away, where they split up and headed straight for the safehouse. Ignis, Noctis, and Aranea took a car. But she and Gladio were to walk the rest of the way.

The were given very simple directions. Look like a couple, find the address, don’t get caught. Aranea made it clear that they would likely not be rescued if they were captured.

“Should we get a map?” Gladio asked. He held her hand in a firm grip that she didn’t find comforting.

“No, it makes us look like tourists.”

He grunted, “I suppose. But it’s a big city.”

“They hang maps on the bus stations. We’ll look when we find one.”

She guided him along with a confidence she did not feel. She’d been to the capitol many times before, but she’d never wandered its streets. Even at midday few people were out, putting her on edge. All they needed to do was look at a person wrong for their cover to be blown.

They found their destination on the map posted at a bus stop downtown. It was across town, east of where they were, so they started walking.

They passed a raid on their way there. A patrol pulled screaming people from the house. She and Gladio turned the corner just as two were shot in the street The rest were pushed into a military transport car as they turned around and headed down a neighboring street. Luna knew that the Empire was capable of much, but she never expected it to be so low as to turn on its own citizens.

They found the safehouse at the end of one street just as the sun set. She and Gladio hurried inside and shucked off their heavy clothing. Ignis was waiting up the steps for Gladio so she checked the rooms until she found where Noctis was sleeping. She shut the door, crawled into bed, and fell into a deep sleep.

\---

When Aranea arrived Prompto and Yuffie pooled their info together in one, comprehensive report. They had no info on the emperor or his two confidants. Several Brutus agents were active around town, some of whom sold information to treeline. Neither of them were able to find out what information was sold of if it was a purchase authorized by Brutus’ heads. Yuffie found out that Scarlet worked independently from the emperor’s personal guard, concerning themselves mostly with political opponents hiding either in their mansions or out in the countryside. Prompto found a list of their names and salaries in their sponsors house, and that list immediately went to Wedge for some digging.

A terrorist attack on the local police station was stopped due to a raid on a protestor’s home. Information on his plot and resources had been stored in a strong box inside the police station which Yuffie broke into several days prior. She’d used the money to purchase some explosives that Cindy began sprucing up when she’d arrived earlier that week.

“Scarlet and Brutus are our best bet on finding our targets.” Aranea said. “What do we know about Scarlet’s agents?”

“Most of them are former criminals.” Wedge explained. “My guess is that they’re receiving some sort of pardon in return for their services.”

“It’ll be difficult to sway Scarlet.” Claire warned. “Brutus has always been neutral, we should try them.”

“But that’ll cost money.” Yuffie said. “How much do we have to get locations on two prominent Duchesses?”

“You could always steal from them?” Biggs said.

“I don’t want to be on anyone’s shit list right now.” Aranea said. “treeline might have bought something useful, and they don’t have the resources to find us.”

“None of their computers are on a network.” Said Wedge. “Someone’s going to have to break in and get me on.”

“Okay. CIndy I’ll have you do that, Prompto you go as back up. Biggs keep an eye on Scarlet, once they know we’re here they’re going to be on us.”

With a path decided they all had to move quickly. He and Cindy headed out to treeline’s base after the city wide curfew took effect. It wasn’t as easy as they hoped with patrols filling the streets, but sticking to the rooftops provided a safe path. They made it across to the lower end of town where patrols were more constant. treeline’s base was a series of houses next to one another with look outs stationed on ledges on the outside houses. Prompto sat on a roof across from them and watched as Cindy ducked inside.

The trick with sneaking into an area as small as a home was to take your time. treeline likely did not have anyone patrolling their interiors and a lookout always had moments of inattentiveness. Cindy slipped inside a back window when one of the lookouts ducked down to light her cigarette.

Prompto ducked behind a wall during a passing patrol. Across the way the look outs ducked inside as well. The unified footsteps of the patrol echoed down the street, growing louder as they approached and softer when they passed by. Prompto stuck his head out to find that the look outs were back at their station still completely unaware of an intruder. For half an hour nothing happened, and Prompto began to wonder if he should phone in to see if something was wrong. But he avoided it, and his earpiece finally crackled just past midnight.

“I’m downloading the files.” Wedge said.

Soon after Cindy vaulted out of a window and they met up further down the street. Wedge gave them the run down as they headed back.

“I have one video of the exchange, but it’s too blurry to make out what the paper says. It looks like they scanned it in though because I can reassemble Brutus’ invisible I.D from the file.” Some silence. “They were getting information of Countess Lilah Tretch’s location. She’s a friend of one of our targets. Don’t know if she would know of their location.”

Wedge went silent for five minutes then came back with more info. There was corruption within the guard and a controversial vote to end the war that would never fly with the, very wealthy, weapons manufacturers and military sector. Another thing of note was a special gathering scheduled for three weeks in the capitol. Several nobles would be there, but there was no word on the emperor or their targets so Aranea was quick to label it a mid priority. He and Cindy arrived back at the safehouse just as Aranea came up with a plan.

“Claire, Yuffie. Go find this woman.” Aranea said. She handed Claire a wad of Niflheim notes, “Once you locate her let me know. Capture her if you can and extract what you can. Call Vincent if you need to.”

They left. And the rest of them waited. Aranea decided they had to spend their time wisely, and they were all assigned one or two known agents from other groups to follow and report on. Prompto ended up trailing a woman named Blair Connors, an ex-felon and professional hacker. She could most often be seen at one of the many coffee shops in town on her laptop. Prompto grabbed a spare laptop and spent his first day typing up a terrible screenplay about a man who wanted to open a coffee shop in the desert.

It was boring but important. He could see about half of Blair’s screen so he kept an eye on when she was attacking something and when she was just browsing a random website. He noticed that when she went up for a coffee that it typically meant she was going to attempt to hack into something, and on the fifth day began letting Wedge know so they could keep tabs on what she was doing.

On the sixth day he sat down for five hours and saw her do nothing but watch cat videos and research how to hand make a desk. It was boring, and he ended up downing two cups of coffee as he waited around for her to do something. Around noon Prompto went to stretch out his wrist he spied writing on his wrist.

**What are you doing?** In Noctis’ scratchy hand. Prompto searched through the laptop bag to find an old pen to answer with.

**_Work. Y?_ **

**Bored. We’ve been considering asking Aranea for a job.**

_I’m watching Gladio do push ups with Ignis on his back._ Luna wrote

**_Fun. But I don’t know what you could do. It’s pretty delicate out here._ **

**What’s the plan then?** Noctis wrote. **We just sit here?**

Blair packed up her laptop, Prompto dropped the conversation to follow her. She took a lap around the empty, unkept park then headed up to her apartment nearby. He watched the outside for an hour before calling it quits and heading back to the safehouse.

In the safehouse most people were asleep. But Aranea and Wedge were awake. On one of the laptop screens a dot slowly traveled across a map of the northern countryside.

“Claire and Yuffie were compromised.” Aranea announced. “Yuffie’s in a hospital right now. The countess is heading to a backup location, we don’t know where yet.”

“Is that a tracker on her?”

“Yes, you’ll need to leave soon to follow her.” She sighed. “I’m also letting you take Luna and Noctis. I’m a little nervous with them both being here, they’re too recognizable.”

“Being in Niflheim’s capitol is the last place anyone would expect to look.”

“Same with the countryside.” She tossed him a go bag full of equipment. “No loose ends.”

He checked the bag. There was a distress radio, a combat knife, a variety of scramblers and portable code breakers, and documents to get a train out towards the country. He added a second knife and a tourniquet, but there wasn’t much else he felt like adding to the already incriminating bag.

He found Luna and Noctis in their room playing a card game. They both looked surprised when he opened the door and handed them their papers.

“You guys want to go on a mission with me?”

\---

Noctis would have done anything to get out of that safehouse, but he wasn’t expecting to be allowed out of the horrible city entirely. He felt a giant weight lift off his chest as the view outside the train window changed from bleak, grey buildings to the sprawling icescape of the freezing countryside. People slowly got off at stops for suburban towns until it was just them in a car heading to a remote village six hours away from the capitol.

“This is our stop.” Prompto said. He gathered up their food bag while Luna took a second to crack her back before they all headed towards the door.

The door opened and a rush of cold air flooded in. Noctis pulled his scarf up over his nose and stuck behind Prompto and Luna. Prompto hadn’t told them what they were all doing, and neither of them asked. They simply followed him out of town through a mostly empty field. Past that there were no road signs, no civilization. He was a little worried about what they were sent out to do, but bit his tongue and kept close.

The snow grew thick and difficult to walk through as they made their way through a forest. They spooked a wild animal and it darted off, which made Luna jump. As it grew darker Noctis began wondering if he should ask how much longer when they broke free of the forest found themselves on an overpass. Under said overpass was a large estate next to a frozen lake.

The estate was large and crafted from beautiful, red wood and decorated with a gold trim. The house and manicured yard were both blanketed in snow like a christmas card, and in the lake a speedboat was covered with a tarp. There were several garages, and a large, security van had been parked several yards from the end.

“This is our target’s house.” Prompto said. He dropped his device in his bag.

“We’re going to kill them?” Luna asked.

“No, we need information from them. Wait here.”

Prompto left his bag with them and headed down the overpass into the basin. It was difficult to follow Prompto after that. They caught sight of him again when he was at the house fiddling with some wires in a small, metal box. He sat there for ten minutes fiddling and looking around before heading back up.

“What’d you do?” Noctis asked.

Prompto held out a little device that listed a bunch of different numbers. “They have a keycard system. There’ve been six unique cards used inside in the last two days.”

“So six people inside?”

“Probably.” He dropped the device back into his backpack. “They’re not going to respond to anything outside unless it sounds dangerous or affects the home. So I was thinking that we cut the power.”

“Where’s the line?” Luna asked. She looked down at the house, searching for a power box.

“We’re not going to cut it at the house, we have to cut it far enough away that it separates them and back up can’t arrive in time.”

In snowy areas the power lines tended to be obscured. Prompto started the search in a nearby clearing and they eventually found the box later in the evening when the sun began to set. Noctis stood watch over the house as Prompto broke the lock and flipped the switch.

Noctis saw the lights immediately go out, and immediately two agents were dispatched. He bided his time until the men were at the edge of the forest before summoning a lance and chucking it straight at the two.

The lance beamed one of the agents in the back of his head. That agent crumpled to the ground in a bloody pile as his friend reached for his gun. Noctis rushed him, knocking him to his back and stabbing him through the chest with his summoned lance.

Prompto turned the power back on to keep more from coming. He and Luna soon appeared to help him search the bodies for a keycard which were clipped into the guard’s breast pockets. Prompto had them leave the men in the snow where the one still living man would definitely die. Noctis felt guilty over it, but it wasn’t the first time he killed someone. It’s what had to get done.

“Luna, do you want to stay out here?” Prompto offered, as they approached the house.

“Why would I do that?”

“There will be more in there.” He said. “And we’ll probably have to kill them.”

He saw uncertainty dance across Luna’s face for just a moment. Honestly he would’ve preferred it if she stayed outside. One less thing to worry about in an active battle zone. But she didn’t. She squared up her shoulders and took a knife from Prompto’s bag. He couldn’t tell her no.

The real trouble came when they used the keycards to get in. They couldn’t just swarm the place in case they tripped a silent alarm so they all stuck close together slowly went through the house. It was big, but single storied. The entrance opened up to a kitchen on the right and a series of rooms on the left. They followed the hall and encountered an agent as he left the bathroom. Prompto had a knife through his throat before he registered that there were intruders. He and Luna focused on dumping the body as Prompto went further inside.

They met up with Prompto just as he finished downing another agent who was left in the hallway. By that point they’d already passed a second sitting area and a library, and were at the end of the hallway with one final door. One last agent and their target.

Prompto put his ear on the door to listen in for a moment. Once he was satisfied he held a keycard over the reader.

“She’s probably in there.” He said. “You guys deal with the agent, I’ll restrain our target.”

He held up his hand and silently counted down. Three. Two. One. Go.

He shoved the door open and rushed in, dodging the agent who was standing near the entrance to go deeper into the room and find the duchess. Luna was next in and the first to engage with the surprised agent. She jabbed the knife into his gut then got smacked over the head with the barrel of his gun in the struggle. Before the agent could fire his gun Noctis ran up and jabbed his dagger into the agent’s stomach. He collapsed, still breathing but soon dead, to the ground in a bloody heap.

Noctis immediately helped Luna up and cracked one of the few elixers he had over her head. The bruise that was forming on her forehead quickly healed.

“You okay Lu?” He asked.

“I’m fine,” She rubbed at the spot. “Is he dead?”

“Yeah. I think it’s all over now.”

“Does Prompto have the duchess?”

Luna didn’t wait for an answer. She crossed the sitting room and opened the door into the duchess’ proper bedroom to find the duchess, bruised and a bit bloodied, tied up on the lush, red carpet. Her elaborate dress was still on, but her hair had fallen out of it’s complicated bun. A wad of duct tape prevented her from speaking so she struggled against her bindings.

“Everything good out there?” Prompto asked.

“It’s fine. Is this her?” Luna asked.

“Yep.” He sighed. “This is her.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully I will be able to update the last few chapters every other week or so. The next one is already written and needs to be edited and the final one is being written. We're close to the end kids.
> 
> Check me out at ithinkicanwritesometimes on tumblr if you want to see the occasional food pun.


	18. The Best Laid Plans

Torture was not something Prompto had much experience in, but he was able to get by just fine in this instance.

Countess Lilah Tretch’s resolve started off strong. She was loyal to her friend, Duchess Ella, and had been taught basic techniques for enduring torture. Not to mention the fact that the longer she held out the more likely someone would realize she was taken when she failed to check in. Despite that she was still only a duchess. There was no way she’d hold out long enough.

One of the most basic torture methods Prompto knew involved tying a double ended metal skewer to her neck with one end right under her chin and the other end on her chest. It was a slow method that kept Lilah from dipping her chin down lest she sent an end through the fleshy underside of her chin or through her chest. He left her with her hands tied behind her chair for several hours while he helped Noctis and Luna clean up the bodies and hunker down for the next few days.

“Wow.” Noctis said as he rooted through the kitchen. “It’s been a while since I’ve had caviar. Can’t believe she had something like that all the way out here.”

Prompto was not surprised. Not only did she have caviar, but she also had different types all staked on top of one another in her cabinets. Next to them were crackers and several bottles of fine wine. He expected Noctis to pull them all out, but he closed the cabinet and moved onto the next.

“People like her cannot be parted from their luxuries.” Luna said. She collected blankets and laid them out in a thick stack on the floor of the living area. Next down were the pillows which she arranged at one end in a thick pile.

“What’s that for?” He asked.

“Sleeping. I’m not sleeping in any of her rooms, I don’t what she’s done in them.”

“This place has ten rooms!”

“And the rich have time to be creative.”

“What makes this space safe?”

“Because I decided it was.” She announced. “Noctis what are you making?”

“Fish egg and champagne cocktails.”

“You can have mine.”

“I’m kidding.” Noctis brought out some quail eggs, steak, and bread. “Breakfast for dinner!”

“Is there anything green in there?”

“No. And don’t look.”

Luna ignored him and found a bag of parsnips among several other fruits and vegetables. “We’ll have these with it.”

“We just stormed this place. We don’t need to eat healthy.”

“We don’t know how long we’ll be here. We have to ration everything.”

She and Noctis were back to “debating”, it was nice. Honestly he was wondering if this was a sign Luna was dealing with the situation better or if she was spiraling, but he didn’t know how he would tell the difference. Noctis clumsily crack the eggs on the side of a pan and dropped them in some hot oil. The yolks cracked and the oil spattered from such a high heat, but they came out edible. The steak got chopped up and Noctis cooked it until it was tough then failed to put any salt on it. Prompto did not say anything as he ate his plate. He’d eaten way worse food.

They finished and Prompto attempted to excuse himself. But Luna invited him to sleep with them under the blankets. He wanted to refuse, but if this kept everyone happy and calm then he could try to deal with it. He left his jacket and shoes on the nearby couch and got under the covers at the edge, expecting immediate silence after their long day. But that didn’t happen.

“Where is the Countess?” Luna asked. “I haven’t seen her.”

“In her room.”

“Locked up?”

“Yep.”

“But we didn’t feed her.”

“I know.”

Luna sighed. “We’re torturing her aren’t we?”

“I’m torturing her. You guys are just eating her food.”

“What did you need us for then?” Noctis asked.

“Aranea didn’t want you around in the city. Thought you guys would be better off out here.”

“So we’re hiding?”

“Yeah.”

“Great.” Noctis rolled over and stuck a pillow over his head to sleep.

“Are you gonna kill her?” Luna asked.

Prompto paused. “Maybe. Probably.”

She paused. “I can’t wait for all of this to be over.”

“Me too.”

Prompto did not sleep well. He hated sharing rooms, and beds moreso. When he was younger and more volatile he’d actually gotten into several midnight fights with a former roommate that the sisters let eventually end with a death. But this wasn’t The Compound, and it made everything go smoothly. He could deal with it for a few days. He wasn’t going to see them after the job was done anyways.

In the morning he checked in with the Countess. She hadn’t been able to wiggle her way loose or knock the pin away. She was sweating after the several hours spent strapped up in her evening dress. A sizable bloodstain had formed on her chest which seeped through the white of her clothes, but she kept her mouth firmly shut when he shut the door and approached.

“Any news on Duchess Ella?” He said casually. “Maybe a location?”

The Countess’ lips did not move.

“Well. I’ll leave you to think about it.”

He left, if it wasn’t the technique then it was the time that got people talking. There was some other things he could do if this didn’t work, and he knew he could always call Vincent, but he doubted it would come to that.

There wasn’t a television or most forms of entertainment in the house, but there was a library. Prompto found Luna and Noctis already inside browsing. Luna found a few Crystal Thrones books and had settled by a window to read them. Noctis still seemed to be looking for something interesting to read in the historical section. He took one of the Crystal Thrones books and settled in.

\---

When the monthly payment didn’t come Aranea knew they were in trouble.

While there was some reserve money leftover from previous months there wasn’t nearly enough to bribe or secure resources for the unidentified amount of time they’d need it. She would’ve attempted to get in touch with Noctis, but Noctis wasn’t directly funding them and doing so might reveal their location to others. She’d need to find something else.

“What do we have that we can sell.” She muttered to herself. Both Biggs and Wedge were running through their recorded resources.

“Info on agents for Scarlet, treeline, Seekers of Truth, and A-line.” Biggs said.

“That’s all general information. And neither the Seekers of Truth or A-line are big players right now.”

“Security codes for the entire train line.” Wedge said.

“They’ll be updating those for the celebration.” So they were useless.

“We could do a few favors.” Biggs said.

“I don’t want to put our name out there like that. We’re vulnerable as it is.”

“But we could rent out a few specialized skills. Yuffie’s a decent torturer.”

“No.”

“We could see information Prompto gets from the Countess.” Wedge said.

“We could… But what if we need it. We can’t sell it to anyone who’ll use it against us.”

“We could just… sell her?”

“We could…”

“Brutus will always pay for that kind of information.” Biggs said.

“They’ll lowball us. We should sell to people who’d pay a premium for information.”

Wedge searched through known players. “silence might be best. They have funding from the Emperor’s political rival Jacob Spyre.”

“What’s his position?”

“He’s openly spoken against Aldercapt for at least a decade.” Wedge frowned. “But he’s known for his temper, and there’s no reason to believe that he’d be any less of a war monger.”

“Why does he oppose Aldercapt then?”

“Machismo. Arrogance? Narcissism? All three probably? He doesn’t have any political allies besides his sister who is currently out in the countryside. If we sold this to him it’s unlikely it’ll be all that beneficial. silence doesn’t have the resources to hunt down the Duchesses and keep a presence here.”

“But they could be holding their trump card.” She sighed, there was no easy answer to this. “Reach out to him. We’ll give him her location. If he accepts inform Prompto and he’ll handle the trade.”

“Okay.”

Aranea retreated to a room, to sit down and take a break from the people. Downstairs Cindy and Ignis were feeding Gladio’s gluttony since he was the only person around, who wasn’t Noctis, available to eat everything. Yuffie was sleeping and Claire was similarly troubled in the living room. It was usual stuff. They were a wet works team, working in a hostile environment was normal, but the delicacy of their operation was stressful. She did not envy the handlers who had to organize these large scale operations and juggle ten, twenty, sometimes thirty agents and ensure they had the resources they needed to get the job done.

Whether or not they were successful it would be a relief for the operation to be over and to return to The Organization. She could tell that everyone was feeling it.

An hour after the sunset Wedge came in to inform her that he would meet to exchange payment and information at one in the morning. She mentally began picking and choosing agents. Claire and Yuffie were not in optimal condition, and she’d need more than Cindy, who was not much of a melee combatant, if she wanted to cover her bases.

“Wake up Ignis and Gladio.” She told Wedge. “They’re coming with me.”

She got Cindy, who was up and ready quickly, and they both waited for Gladio and Ignis to come down. The two were clearly reluctant to wake up at such an odd time, but there was not much of a choice in the matter. Shit needed to get done.

“What are we doing?” Ignis asked immediately before they left.

“The prince’s funding has been cut off. We’re trading the Countess’ location for some money.”

“So the capitol noticed that he wasn’t doing what he promised to do.” Ignis sighed, “And now they’ve cut him off.”

“Dammit.” Gladio whined. “When we return I’m resigning.”

“This is all fascinating.” She deadpanned. “Come on.”

The meeting place was in an abandoned building in the red light district. Aranea did tend to enjoy the atmosphere of a typical red light district, but Niflheim’s capital was something else. No cops, but little foot traffic. In times of struggle the red light district always turned into a second battling ground. Meetings to exchange information rather than sex. Workers killed their john’s. John’s purchased information about other clients. A worker killed because they found out too much. And in the morning the bodies would be gone without anyone saying anything.

Silence agents were already at the meeting place when they arrived. Three agents. One man and two women. All armed with knives but no guns. Others potentially hiding outside, but Aranea couldn’t worry about that. Whether they had backup or not would not matter if she made sure everything went smoothly.

“Hello ma’am.” The redheaded woman said. Her face was perfectly neutral as she approached the center of the building. “Do you have the Countess?”

“Not with me.”

“Obviously.”

“Yes, I have her. I will give you the location when I have the money.”

“Our client would like us to confirm several things. Is the Countess harmed?”

“Minor injuries.” Aranea said carefully. Just enough to answer the question. No details.

“Does she know the location of the Duchess’.”

“I don’t know.”

“I see. What reason would you have to obtain her if not for that information?”

“Leverage.”

“Hmp.” The woman reached her hand out behind her. The man, tall and heavy set, placed a briefcase in her hand. “You will be paid in the local currency in the amount agreed upon.”

Aranea took the briefcase and began the labor of checking that it was accurate. She held one up to check the seal through a small stream of light coming through the window. It was authentic so she set it back in it’s case.

“She’s located in the Snowpeak mountains. Five miles north of the train station. My agents are with her.”

Aranea handed the suitcase to Gladio so they could head out. Cindy, who entered the building last, followed protocol and headed towards the door first. Aranea didn’t take two steps before realizing something had gone wrong. When she caught sight of Cindy struggling to open it she knew that they were in trouble.

A knife came sailing from the dark rafters towards Aranea’s chest. She caught it before it connected and immediately threw it back as hard as she could. Gladio dropped the money to summon his sword and Ignis just barely blocked the red headed woman.

There was no way of knowing how many there were and where they would be located. Even if they killed all of the ones in the building there could be others outside. Priorities shifted, get out and warn Prompto. She flanked the red headed woman and jammed a knife in her back. Ignis tossed one of his knives over her head to catch one of the men off guard. He crumpled to the floor as Ignis summoned his weapon back.

“Get the money and go!” She ordered. Cindy grabbed the suitcase of money and threw it through a window. The impact made a hole big enough for her and Ignis to dive through. Gladio charged the door, knocking it off its hinges and knocking out an agent on the other end.

“We have to split up.” She yelled before Gladio could get too far. He followed her and she lead him on a chase through the red light district. Down random alleys then cutting through the business district. They slowed down when they arrived downtown and waited for a bit at a twenty-four hour coffee shop before heading back.

Cindy and Ignis arrived before her both bruised and battered, but successful in bringing the money back safely. They’d already started on counting it and checking random bills to insure their accuracy.

“You two can go to bed if you want.” She said to Ignis and Gladio.

Gladio shrugged, his face looking very tired. “I don’t think I’ll sleep much right now. Did we at least get paid?”

Cindy shook her head. “Half of them are fake. We could go get the rest from them, Biggs was telling me that what was there was likely their entire group and he managed to get their faces by hacking into the cameras on the edge of the district.”

“Are they convincing?”

“Very.” She handed over a bill. “It passes all but one chemical test. We could potentially use it to purchase stuff, but they might have numbers they can track.”

“We’ll use them. Did Biggs call Prompto?”

“Yeah. He’s wrapping things up right now.”

\---

“She’s going to be at the New Seasons event alone.” The Countess sobbed. “Th-The emperor didn’t want to risk it. Please let me go.”

“Who else knows she’ll be there?”

“Only Marina.”

Prompto was not entirely satisfied with that answer, but he was running out of time. If he had more resources he could move her to a more secure location and continue from there. But he didn’t have those resources. He took one last look at the Countess’ crumpled form. Her blood stained dress and dark rimmed eyes. She’d been awake for three days sitting in that chair. He’d cut her hamstrings on the second and did an intentionally haphazard job of stitching them back up. Torture always was an uncertain science. The victim could end up so messed up that their confession was meaningless. But there was no way to go back.

He untied her arms. They fell uselessly against her sides. She groaned in pain and relief. He let her have it for a moment before he plunged a knife through her neck.

He left her body in her bedroom and headed out. Noctis and Luna were waiting in the living area, both packed and ready to leave.

“So are we done?” Luna asked.

“Yep. We gotta go now.”

Aranea wired funds for him to purchase a snowmobile rather than risk the train. He drove it halfway there before they switched to the bus for the rest of the way. They were all mostly quiet and contemplative on the way back. There was no time for a real conversation.

Once they were all back at the safehouse Aranea briefed him on what happened while they were away and the new plan. With the event on a few days away they’d secured a brief itinerary of the event.

“Claire and Yuffie are both back on their feet. CIndy and I will just follow to make sure that they stick to the itinerary and they’ll make the kidnapping. I’ve got a cabin near the route set up for them. So you’re on standby until after that.”

That was fine with Prompto. He had a lot to think about.

\---

Yuffie’s leg was still sore, but she had to ignore it.

She and Claire had been sitting in the same spot for a week. They watched the Duchess’ small procession traipse through the mountain trail towards the city. Got a feeling for the size and speed at which they moved, then located the return route and set up. Bombs on the mountaintops to induce a slide. Bombs located on the ground to slow the procession. They then camped out and kept their radio on. Aranea told them when the Duchess arrived, when she left, and gave hourly updates on her progress.

“Half a mile out.” She said over the radio. “We’re backing off now.”

Claire sighed. “This is it.”

They split up. Claire took the other half of the road and she snuffed out their fire. They waited and watched as the shielded, black car flanked by two snowmobiles churned through the thick snow. Yuffie thumbed the trigger. Watched them slowly make progress. She only had one shot.

When they passed the marked tree she breathed in, out, then pulled the trigger.

The explosion made the ground rock. The two flanking guards were launched from the bikes with such force that they died upon impact with the ground. Claire jumped from her hiding spot and rushed the car, using the gun on her blade to killed the driver and shoot out the locks. Yuffie ripped a door open and reached inside. Another guard sat between her and the Duchess, and he was already distracted trying to shoot Claire. Yuffie stabbed him through the back of his shooting shoulder and pulled his body out of the car.

Once Claire grabbed the Duchess she hit the second trigger. The explosion on the mountain tops was more a distraction than anything, but the snow rapidly began to fall down towards their position. Claire dragged the Duchess up towards the mountain opposite the explosion and they both just barely made it before the snow partially covered the attack. It was sloppy, but they didn’t have the resources for clean up.

“Let me go!” Duchess Ella screeched. She was panicked and repeatedly tried to tear herself from Claire’s firm grip. Yuffie breezed past the two and began the moderate trek up towards their remote safehouse.

They wouldn’t be safe forever at the location, but it was far from main roads and through a relatively difficult path. Claire jammed a sedative into Ella’s neck and ten minutes later they were making the journey towards the safehouse in complete silence.

Once inside they tied Duchess Ella up and waited until the drug wore off. It was a moderate dose, but it didn’t start wearing off until well past dark. She woke up slowly, until she could properly access what had happened, when her head snapped up and she began to struggle against the bindings.

“Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!” She chanted. “You don’t know what you idiots are doing! They’ll find me!”

Claire let her chant for a bit before silencing her by bashing her head against the wall. The Duchess began to sob instead, squealing and squirming.

“If you cooperate then you’ll be fine.” Claire said. She pulled out the phone Wedge provided. They had about ten minutes on it before they had to hang up and destroy the card inside.

She dialed the number Prompto had found in the Countess’ phonebook. It rang and rang and rang for a good minute before the click and a voice. “Hello?”

Claire put it up to her ear. “Hello Marina. We have your wife,” Marina let out a hitched breath over the phone, “We wanted to set up a meeting to discuss a trade.”

“Don’t do it Marina!” Ella sobbed.

“Shut up!” Claire snapped. “We’d like to meet at the Firelight lake tomorrow at midnight. Alone. Do that and we’ll return her safe and sound.”

“I don’t trust you!” Marina stammered. She sounded close to tears herself. “How do I know you’ll do what you say?”

“I don’t care if you believe. Be there or don’t.” Claire shut the phone off then crushed it under the heel of her boot. “Sit tight. You’ll be here for another twenty-four hours.”

With the threat made they had more waiting to do. Yuffie let Claire rest first and after that they traded off shifts. Duchess Ella continued to whimper and moan, making threats that she couldn’t personally keep. Yuffie shoved a sock in her mouth after an hour and from there they both tried to keep from going insane.

\---

Prompto arrived at the Firelight Lake in the morning and spent the day keeping watch of the area. Few people came in and out in that time due to the heavy snowfall. He supposed that in the spring it was a nice place to be. He found torches and several benches circling the lake. Without the six inches of snow it might’ve been a romantic spot to be.

Unfortunately there wouldn’t be any romance that night. By three in the afternoon no one was at the lake. Prompto took several chances to make a lap around and check for hidden weapons or to see if someone had snuck up without him noticing. Thankfully he found nothing in his many scans. By ten he was confident that no one else was there.

Aranea and Cindy arrived at eleven. He gave them a walk around and showed where he’d be hiding then left them to organize and debate while he got into position. The woods that surrounded the lake were empty, and he was able to comfortably watch as Duchess Marina’s car drove up. It was still for a moment before Marina opened the door and exited. No one else opened the door to follow.

Marina was armed. He could tell that she had a small gun in the lining of her fur coat and a knife in her boot. But he could also tell that she was too nervous to use them. It was placed incorrectly, creating a lump under her coat, and she kept patting at it nervously. Prompto didn’t bother to warn either Cindy or Aranea as he followed Marina up the path towards the meeting place.

His job was to more keep watched rather than listen in. If the deal went south they could handle it as long as there weren’t any surprises waiting for them on the outside.

His patrolling took him far from them where he couldn’t hear before circling back. When he got closer he could hear Marina’s urgency. Her almost wish for a fight, while Aranea was calm and didn’t give her anything to latch onto. Cold and businesslike. Debate the terms and keep responses brief. So while Marina dug for a reason to call it off and alert the emperor Aranea calmly answered questions with as little information as necessary.

Prompto headed back out again. It sounded like they would wrap things up quickly, but he didn’t want to rule out someone taking the chance to sneak up and interrupt right before the deal was confirmed.

The phone in his pocket rang. He panicked a bit as he fished it out, Yuffie and Claire were on radio silence unless there was an emergency, it clicked and the call connected.

“Ella’s dead.” Claire said. Her voice sounded almost painfully strained as she spoke. “We got jumped an hour ago and they killed her.”

“Who?”

“Couldn’t find out. We have suspicions. We’re going to regroup back in the city and discuss it.”

Claire hung up. Prompto chose to wait until the deal was settled and Marina left before he approached Aranea and Cindy. It looked like the deal itself had been settled, but it wasn’t fulfillable without a Duchess to trade.

“Ella’s dead.” He announced. “Claire called just ten minutes ago.”

Aranea closed her eyes and pinched at the bridge of her nose.

“Oh god damn it!” Cindy complained. She rested her forehead against a tree and let out a long whine.

“Where are Claire and Yuffie now?”

“Heading back to the safehouse.”

“Fuck. Let’s go. Sort this shit out.”

They all hurried back to the safehouse to regroup. Claire and Yuffie arrived with new injuries, Yuffie had a long cut down an arm and Claire had a giant bruise on her stomach. They got patched up by Cindy while they debriefed.

“There was about five of them. One took the Duchess’ head and after we killed three of them the last two immediately left.” Yuffie said.

“Sounds like they need proof she’s dead.”

“Probably. I was thinking it might’ve been the emperor himself.”

“I was too. He’s the only one who would benefit from it. Keeps Marina from talking. But were you tagged? How did they find you?”

“He has the resources to scout an area like that.” Wedge interrupted. “I don’t think we were tracked, I think he just has the money and manpower and search a mountain range for three people.”

“Then why didn’t he have them killed?” Aranea asked.

“Cause he can’t afford to lose more people? All he needed was the head, and with that he can lie to Marina to say that we’d already have killed her and that we didn’t hold up our end of the deal. He cuts off the most viable means of finding us by killing the one thing that would get Marina to talk. And therefore our only means of finding where he is. They didn’t need to kill Claire and Yuffie, and if they stuck around to try they might’ve all died. Especially since they both killed over half of their agents already.”

“Dammit.” Aranea was silent as she contemplated that information. “He has to come out eventually. He has to have projects that people are working on. He’s at war after all… Alright. We’re going to all split up and track down advisors and manufacturers. He’ll come out eventually to talk to them and when he does we’ll get him then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the next update will either be the last chapter or second to last chapter. Which means this behemoth of a fic is almost over!


	19. The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it ya'll. The final chapter to this nearly year long project. Thanks to everyone who read whether they were here from the beginning or hopped on near the end. I've got some other stuff coming. Tales of Carbuncle Farm is in progress and I've got a neat project where people turn into dragon hybrids that I'm going to start writing either this weekend or next weekend. It'll be about 10 chapters long and hopefully I can start posting it late September/early October. I'm going to try to have a more set schedule and plan with it. Peace my dudes!

It took him a month to get a lead.

They shoved as much as they could in Noctis’ armiger and headed north. Prompto hadn’t expected to have back up, but both Noctis and Luna opted to help him rather than sight tight with Gladio and Ignis. He wasn’t present during the conversation where this choice was agreed upon, they both caught him as he was about to leave and invited themselves along. It was a bit cumbersome, but he couldn’t say he wasn’t glad for the company.

The worst of the winter had passed, but it was a moot point so far north. Prompto had never been this far into Niflheim in his travels, so even he was surprised by the climate. The weapon’s facility was narrowed down to a large stretch that they had to search through, and it could potentially be hidden under feets of snow or strategically tucked within a mountainside. They would have to take their time and be thorough if they wanted to find it.

It took them a week to get out to the area they would search. Most of the journey was on foot, especially after they went as far north as the train lines would go. He expected Luna and Noctis to both slow him down, but they held up surprisingly well in the harsh climate.

When they got to the edge of the area to search Prompto decided it was a good time to camp. It was late, and they’d stumbled upon a half upright cabin, Prompto figured it was a sign. They started a fire with some of their dwindling supply of firewood and cracked open three cans of chili.

“That sunset is pretty.” Luna said. The night was clear and the reds bounced off the pure white. They hadn’t had the chance to talk much since setting out, but every once in a while they took a break from the drudge of hiking to get a good look at nature. It kept their spirits up so Prompto tried not to stop them when the mood arose.

“I wish I had my phone. I could take the photo that finally makes me chocogram famous.”

“You’re not famous already?”

“No I only have five followers.”

She patted his shoulder, “You’ll get there.”

“The trick is to actually keep your face in focus when you take selfies.” Prompto joked.

“You’ve seen my profile?”

“Once or twice.”

“He’s our assassin soul mate of course he’s seen it.” Luna said, she then turned to Prompto “Shame you don’t have any pictures for us to see.”

“So sorry, I’ll be sure to snap a few next time I’m at KennyLand.”

“Be sure that you do.” She ordered

They joked around a little bit longer, but they were still tired and dreading the work in store so they all fell asleep soon after. Prompto found himself dipping in and out of sleep, aware that they could be attacked at any time, but feeling more relaxed knowing that it would be difficult to be trailed in the snow..

Searching for the facility was a three week venture. They had a lot of ground to cover and Prompto often paused to see if he could root out a hidden entrance or to check for cameras. During nights they’d look for anything that could provide enough shelter to start a fire and slept. He didn’t know what this facility looked like or if there was more than one in the area. There was even a chance that his intel was wrong and it was gone entirely. He tried not to think about that too much.

Eventually all that work paid off. Early one morning they were halfway up a mountain when Luna spied it poking out of the snow at the base. It was a moderate sized series of white buildings with fences blocking off the most convenient points of approach. But Prompto wasn’t worried about that.

During the past few years the facility had steadily lost funding. It was an important research area, but it wasn’t working on the big weapons of mass destruction. It once produced MT’s. And with its remote location it soon was clear that keeping loads of security on payroll just to protect it was a waste of money. This all worked to Prompto’s advantage. The emperor would not expect anyone to make it out this far. And he would, eventually, visit. He made the rounds to his weapons manufacturers at least twice per year. They might need to wait a few months, but he’d come.

“Fun fact I was made here.” He said casually as they made their way down the mountain, slightly out of the blue. But he found this facility after following the papertrail that started with his file so it was likely they’d run into something that would pertain to him. Might as well be the first to tell them rather than let something else give it away.

“Made here?” Noctis hesitantly asked.

“Yeah.” He tried to stay casual as they continued down. He didn’t feel casual at all, but he didn’t want their prying. “The Organization put in an order and then I was made and shipped to them when I was really young. Me and a few others.”

“Oh…” Luna muttered. She was quiet for a minute. “Is that what was in that folder?”

Prompto nearly sighed, Luna was always pretty sharp. “Yeah. It had receipts from my purchase. I don’t think these cameras are live.”

That diverted their attention, they all walked in front of the snow covered cameras that littered the mountainside, but when nothing happened they continued on down towards the entrance. There weren’t any patrols to worry about, but Prompto would feel much better once they were inside. The door was locked, and he didn’t have the tools to force his way through. The scanner next to it looked dated, but he held his wrist under it to see if anything happened.

There was a pause, then a click, and the doors slowly opened to a dark hallway. Noctis didn’t need to be prompted to take out a flashlight and shine it down the path to make sure they were clear.

For a second Prompto thought it might’ve been a dud. The facility might’ve been decommissioned within the past year. But as they stepped in the lights slowly flickered on, revealing a clean, empty hallway. They followed it down.

Unfortunately there was still security. They ended up encountering several older MT models as they searched through the building. First one down the hall and then a second in the inner sanctum the hallway went to. These enemies were dispatched so easily that Prompto felt comfortable splitting up and send Luna and Noctis to search the west side of the facility while he handled the east. He ran into two other half working MT”s as he made his way down.

The east side of the facility had all of the offices, almost all of which were empty. Since the place became automated researchers were slowly moved out into other facilities and not replaced. Eventually it left only one individual around, Vestael Besithia.

Prompto knew that Besithia was in the facility. The notes he found stated that food and supplies had been delivered to the facility regularly as he refused to move. But Prompto didn’t find him in any of the offices. There had been a room that Besithia clearly spent most of his time in with notes scattered about, but there was also a layer of dust over the entire room. Besithia hadn’t been in there for a while.

He searched that entire upper half of the east end before descending down to the bunker. It was equally deserted and dusty with most of the doors closed. Prompto walked down the hall and carefully opened each one to check that they were empty, slowly making his way down the line.

Prompto wasn’t really expecting to find anything by doing that. But halfway through he pushed a door open and released the foul, unmistakable stench of a decaying body. He didn’t bother trying to block out the smell, because death couldn’t be blocked out, and peaked inside.

The body was decaying, but still recognizable once he got up close. Laying flat on it’s back, arms over it’s chest as if it were resting, laid the dead body of Verstael Besithia. He’d been dead at least two weeks by the looks of him. Prompto felt a tight squeeze in his chest at the sight. He didn’t have any love for the man, but he hadn’t been looking forward to killing him either.

Prompto took the body and found the cremation room where he cremated it and dumped the ashes out in the snow. It was one of the few times disposing a body that he actually wondered if he should feel something. Or if he should mention it to Luna and Noctis. He thought it over before deciding to keep it for himself. He wasn’t feeling like spilling his complicated feelings about his origins at that point in his life.

He returned inside to search through Besithia’s personal computer. A few people had begun to follow up on emails he’d failed to respond to so Prompto spent a few hours fudging some data to send then went out to check on the food source. The pantry was stocked full of non perishables like bags of beans and rice with a handful of frozen proteins. When he met up with Luna and Noctis they made up some bean, chicken, and rice stew then passed out.

When Prompto woke up he went and checked on the security system. It was an old system that had gone off when the cameras picked up their approach, but then shut off when Prompto had scanned his code. Along with the motion sensor there were noise sensors and heat detection which he made sure were working before leaving it alone. He’d have to check on it every so often, but now they were just waiting for either the emperor to show up or to get the all clear that someone else had offed him in that time.

He found some entertainment in the living area at the north end of the facility. An old TV with plenty of old movies, some board games, a study with books. Prompto could see how a man who spent over forty years of his life there could slowly go insane in such a place. Going from a facility full of people to no one could wear on anyone’s mind. He figured they’d be fine for a year tops, but no longer. It was too easy to go stir crazy in a place as closed off as this.

“So…” Noctis said awkwardly when he finally woke up after a fifteen hour nap and came down for food. Prompto had settled down to go through some disorganized documentation. “We found a room….” He cut off.

“Yeah…?”

“And it’s uhm… Like I’m glad that you told us you were born here, because - you know- we found, uhm, some clones.” He stuttered, “Some clones that, uh, looked like you.”

“... You found this in the area you searched?”

“Yeah, storage room D.”

Prompto felt a tightening in his gut. “Great, thanks.”

“...It’s not weird that you’re here in the same place as a bunch of your clones?”

He let out a bark of a laugh, “Of course it is,” He then shrugged, “Can’t change any of that though now can I?”

That was that. He avoided that side of the facility like the plague, but thankfully there wasn’t anything there that he needed to concern himself with. They hunkered down for their potentially long wait, all three of them slowly letting the tension out as they settled into their temporary home. Prompto checked the cameras often and they all were too nervous to even leave the facility. But they loosened up by necessity one month in.

Prompto got himself into a routine. Up for twenty hours, sleep for nine, wake up occasionally when he felt too anxious to sleep. Breakfast, train a bit in his room, lunch, find some entertainment, dinner, either train or entertainment, sleep. He tried to keep some kind of goal for himself. Finish a book, beat his last high score in solitaire, watch a new movie. He was no stranger to long waits and when he noticed Luna or Noctis getting a little antsy he advised them to do the same.

They got together four times a week to play a board game and tell stories, starting first with the mundane then transitioning quickly to more personal matters. Prompto knew many of their stories, but listened because he knew they needed it. Speaking with people was an important part of getting through long periods of isolation. He thought that he’d manage to keep quiet about his own life, but even he broke down in the isolation. Telling them several stories of his early years.

He still kept some things to himself. Finding out that there were more clones still alive sent a twist in his chest. He knew, growing up, that something had been off. When he was very young he remembered brothers. The receipts in his folder listed three others sold. But they weren’t a strong memory. He did remember running away with one, and eventually getting caught. Then there were only two brothers. Fighting and then only one. And finally just him.

It was likely all repressed memories. He should probably look into some sort of therapy. If they survived this. And if there was a person on earth he could trust for therapy.

“Down on the Range… That was released when my mother was a child.” Luna said one day as they 

“Is it good?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never seen it.” Luna said. She popped it inside the dusty video player then sat down on the other end of the couch. Noctis came into the room carrying three bowls of instant noodles mixed with a jar of pickled corn. Prompto inhaled his portion within the first ten minutes of the film then started into some trail mix as dessert. They settled in quietly to watch the movie, commenting on old, bulky technology that all the characters used.

“Hey, what do we do when the emperor does show up?” Luna asked during a boring montage.

“Kill him.”

“Yeah but how?” She pinched at a sunflower seed to split it.

“A knife.” Noctis said.

“You two are being deliberately obtuse.”

“Well you’re being deliberately acute.”

Prompto let them go at it. It was a good idea to plan since he wasn’t alone and had people he could use to guarantee the kill. There were three people and the emperor would not come in alone no matter how few people were supposed to be there. After the movie Prompto got a good look at the inner sanctum. There were several things made to defend the facility. A self defense system was in place, though rudimentary. Two big guns on either side of the sanctum to pick off enemies coming through the narrow tunnel. They both took physical rounds which Prompto scavenged up from the basement.

It was unlikely there would be too many guards. Getting up this far was difficult without hauling half of one’s defense team with them. He found a back exit and plotted an escape route using that. They wouldn’t have to kill everyone who came, just the emperor. In fact keeping some of his guard alive would make their job easier, as they’d report his death for them.

The emperor only had so much room to run if they didn’t manage to kill him with the defense system. Either further inside, and as an old man he did not stand a chance against any of them, or back out into the snow. The snow posed a problem if backup stayed behind and were able to whisk him away, so they had to be sure to close the door. Prompto ran through a basic plan where Luna had the door shut from the view center up stairs while he and Noctis either used the defense mechanism to fire or attacked him physically. This was one of the many plans he had them both memorize over the next few weeks.

“Think there’s any fish in that lake?” Noctis asked. He found a map of the area and found a lake nearby.

“It’s probably frozen over.”

“Yeah, but we can cut through it. If I catch something we can eat it.”

Prompto did not want to be tempted by the idea of fresh food. But Noctis was smart and had approached him over a breakfast of powdered eggs and crackers. Prompto held out for a moment hoping he’d tell Noctis no, but he unfortunately gave the green light to go out for half a day and fish the lake.

He went with Noctis since the lake wasn’t far out and someone needed to keep watch. Luna went with them because she needed to stretch her legs too. They all put on layers and layers of clothes that they found scattered about the facility then trudged out to the lake.

The weather was clear. It wasn’t the season for horrible storms so walking out to the lake was fairly easy and a welcome, physical activity. When they got there Prompto helped Noctis cut out a small, wonky circle for him to cast his line in. He then sat down with Luna to relax for a bit.

After a little bit of relaxing they both got up and began making little figures in the snow. First starting off small, but quickly growing as Noctis began reeling in moderate sized fish. Prompto sculpted a small box then Luna put a bigger one next to it. Prompto tried to make a little pyramid, then Luna decided that they were building a town. They spaced things out to make roads for their citizens. Prompto made little people strolling through a park and Luna built a luxury coffee shop that served espresso lattes and doughnuts as big as her head.

It was fun, and a nice stress reliever from the never ending waiting. They spent a few hours and built a little world for themselves. He did feel a little bummed when it got dark and they had to go back inside.

They cooked up the fish and sat down to watch Midnight Accordo. Prompto felt fairly relaxed through the first half but then got a sudden and immediate sense of dread in the pit of his stomach. As terrible as being locked up was, there were some bits of it that were enjoyable. Being able to talk with Luna or Noctis and watch movies often times were the highlight of his day, and something he’d have to give up once this was all over.

He’d gone into this expecting to be able to just leave it all behind. Like when he’d left Luna to return home. It hadn’t been easy, but it had been manageable due to their unfortunate first meeting and the knowledge that the empire would always be a threat and that any relationship with them would be too dangerous for a hitman. But now he was mostly unemployed, the empire was going to crumble, whether by their hands or by their own unstability, and they all had taken time to get to know one another.

He ended up going to bed uncertain in his own future and dreading having to make the decision to go back to his old life or abandon it all together. He could do it. If he wanted. But he couldn’t see a middle ground through the cloud of anxiety that weighted on his head.

Prompto waited, dreaded, and pondered for another month. He didn’t talk to them about it, it wasn’t a decision he could really trust other people to make or really understand. And he knew what everyone thought already. Aranea would think it was stupid to leave, because a hitman never truly left their career they just got out of shape. Luna would want to see him out of that life because like it or not she was the oracle and she could not jell will murder. Noctis was a swing vote, but he’d likely end up trying to get Prompto out of it.

He didn’t consider being a hitman as part of his identity like many others did. It was something he was created to do and do it well he did. But he wasn’t certain he could completely leave it behind. He was comfortable in his life and his job. Would he be comfortable with them? Would he be able to stay? What could he do if not this?

There were no easy answers to those questions. He searched and searched, but eventually time ran out. Prompto woke up early one morning to alarms blaring. The monitor blinked on showing a procession of black vehicles approaching the base. He ran out to the hall to find both Noctis and Luna reciting the plan and getting ready.

Prompto felt nervous, more nervous than he could ever recall being before a hit. He counted two cars on the monitor and four guards who exited the vehicle with the emperor. Assuming the cars each had four seats that meant that three other people were likely left behind. A standard formation for protecting people who couldn’t protect themselves.

They all stayed quiet as they watched a guard hold a card under the scanner then head on inside. Noctis’ hand hovered over the shutdown button, waiting just until the last guard filed into the room. None of them heard any click from the door, so they hoped that the lock had silently engaged

“Doctor Besithia!” The emperor yelled. His voice nasally and haggard. “It is time for you biannual check in.”

He stood in the center of the sanctum surrounded by his four guards, looking very much like he did not want to be there. Clearly he wanted to be in and out of the most remote research facility his empire had as quickly as possible. Noctis and Luna both silently made their way to the turrets on the two ends of the sanctum while Prompto hid behind some crates and kept an eye on the sanctum area.

“He’s probably further inside sir.” One of the guards said.

“Of course he is.” The emperor grumbled. The party headed further inside.

Together Luna and Noctis pulled the turrets down and aimed them at the party. The rusty, creaking noise alerted the group, but only two were able to whisk the emperor away before Luna and Noctis opened fire. The rain of bullets killed two agents almost instantly, causing their bodies to drop to the floor in a bloody, bullet ridden mess.

They stopped firing just long enough for Prompto to drop down and give chase. Behind him Noctis followed. Prompto knew that there wasn’t much of a chase, there was only so far the emperor could run and only so far his agents could carry him. Before they could exit the hallway Prompto caught up with one and jumped on him. Dodging gunfire to plunge a knife in the man’s shoulder. They collapsed on the floor and Prompto barely managed to retrieve his knife to jab it in the agent’s neck before he could be fired at again.

Noctis passed him and caught up with the agent and the emperor. As expected the agent immediately moved to engage to give his charge a better chance of escaping. Noctis was prepared for the fight and was able to gain the upper hand quickly by shooting a hole in the agent’s thigh.

Prompto passed them both and chased after the emperor who was only able to put ten feet between himself and the scuffle before Prompto caught up. He didn’t waste anytime. His goal was right before him and like with any hit the motions came easily. Prompto raised his arm above his head and jabbed the knife in the emperor’s heaving ribcage.

Things went quiet after that. The emperor, the most powerful man on Eos, quickly died on the floor of an almost empty research facility. They’d waited months, arguably years, for this moment. And it was over after barely a struggle. There was no mountain of enemies or grand ranting from a man who realized he’d been outmaneuvered.

Hitmen were always in the middle of political upheavals. Prompto had taken part in plenty. But none felt quite as momentous or terrifying as this one. It wasn’t the end of people dying, there would be more chaos and more death before this all got settled. But the way Niflheim had been was over. Several people would fight for power. Previously independent countries, full of people who still remembered their old identities, would separate themselves from the now weak empire.

“Is he dead.” Luna asked, crouching over him and the body.

“Yeah.”

\---

Noctis arrived home just days after witnessing the death of the emperor. By then the news had begun to spread and Niflheim was was already crumbling. Lucis turned the tide of the battles in their favor and leaving the country was almost more perilous than entering it.

“What did you do?” His father asked. Noctis was dragged to his father’s office once he stepped foot in Insomnia. It was late, his father was in sleeping clothes, and yet his stare was almost enough to make Noctis break down. The last few months were quickly catching up with him.

“I went out and did what I said.” He tried to fish around his brain for a better lie, but he couldn’t think of what he did to leave Insomnia in the first place.

“Did you now?” His father sighed, and sunk just a bit in his chair. “We noticed your funds being forwarded to an unknown account. That’s why it was decided to cut you off. Did you realize this?”

“No, I honestly didn’t even notice it was gone. We were mostly off the grid.”

“I see. So this was, what, a camping trip?” His father said with bite in his voice.

“No, it was...” He struggled to find the right words, but figured out there were none. He couldn’t say anything about what he did, half of it was treason and the other half just plain stupid. It was difficult to realize that he’d had a hand in defeating their greatest enemy, but that they couldn’t say anything about it.

“Go to your room.” His father ordered as if he were twelve, “There are bigger things I have to deal with than your blatant, poorly hidden deception.”

Noctis had to think of where his room was before he could head to it. Once there he collapsed into bed and forgot about the world for a glorious ten hours.

It was pretty late when he woke up again. Noctis didn’t know what time it was. He rolled over, got out of bed, showered, and found some food in the kitchens. He snacked on popcorn as he roamed the halls looking to see if anything had changed. Not many people were up to talk to, but he rooted around for old newspapers and searched online to catch up with what had happened while he was gone.

Ignis’ uncle was put on trial and given a life sentence, taking a few other people down with him. News of the emperor’s death, and the entire state of the country, hit the front page just two days before Noctis arrived home. He flicked through the various extremely inaccurate articles before trying to see if Gladio or Ignis had arrived back yet. According to a janitor neither of them had arrived home yet so he went back to sleep and woke up later that morning to a knock and a long, stressful six months of debates, arguing, and politics. Battles were won, a nation invaded. Groups that could unite under a Niflheim banner did, only to eventually surrender. Noctis’ actions were never formally addressed, which angered many, but he tried not to think about it more than he needed to.

Gladio and Ignis were formally reprimanded, something they also accepted. Noctis avoided them for a while just so they could get their lives together back at home. He knew that Clarus wouldn’t appreciate Gladio seeing anyone with such a dark stain on his son’s record and Ignis deserved a few days off just to focus on himself. It was only when treaties were being written that they could actually hang out together without getting dirty looks.

“Are you and Luna still planning on getting married?” Ignis asked over a lunch in the back of a BBQ place. Gladio sat across from him, both listening and happily plucking strips of pork belly from the grill.

He shrugged, “We haven’t really spoken about it. There isn’t as much of a rush with the empire not breathing down our necks.”

“Hmm, back to the same old same old I suppose.” Ignis said. “It would be a nice reprieve for most of the populace to see you two finally wed.”

“First marriage.” Gladio said with a mouthful of pork, “Then babies. And then you can tell them this story.”

“I don’t think I’ll be telling anyone this story.” Noctis sighed. “Who’d believe me? Probably best to just forget about it.”

“Well, Prompto’s probably doing the same.” Ignis said. “There are more pressing matters to deal with.”

That sent a rough tear through Noctis’ gut, and he miserably pushed away his food. He was actually going to miss Prompto. Maybe it was because they went through a lot, but he had thought that Prompto would be around, at least a little, after all was said and done. He wrote a few times, once directly seeking to talk to Prompto, and got nothing back.

It made sense. Prompto’s life didn’t gel with theirs and he didn’t seem keen on giving it up. Noctis supposed it was best to not think about it. Not the ideal choice, but the only person who he could talk about it with was Luna and she had her own burdens.

He’d moved out into an apartment in a more quiet neighborhood just to get away from the politicians for a few months. He walked home after dinner and did some work in front of the TV then stayed up late playing video games and sipping coffee just so he could get just a bit more play time It was one of those days where he needed to drown in fighting game combos before he went to bed. Focus on something so his mind didn’t wander as he fell asleep. He didn’t have anything to do the next day anyway. He played until he could barely process what buttons he was pressing then collapsed into bed with the game pause screen still on.

Tap, tap. Noctis opened his eyes, aware that time had passed but completely unaware of how much time it was. Tap, tap. He looked over at his window just to see another rock hit the glass, tap.

He sat up and pried the window open, expecting some sort of trouble from the local kids. But instead he found two familiar blonds standing on the ground three stories down. Luna had her hand back preparing to throw another stone and Prompto was leaning back against the tree. Noctis stomach flipped with joy and he was so he could barely speak.

“Pack up!” Luna whisper yelled. “We’re going to Lestallum!”

Noctis happily followed orders, dumping mostly clean clothes into a bag along with a charger and his laptop. He hurriedly rushed down the steps and met them out front where they both had jumped into a nice, low profile car.

“When’d you guys get here?”

“An hour ago.” Prompto said.

“He picked me up last night.” Luna passed him a rolled up sweater as Prompto began driving, “You want to get some more sleep?”

“No, I wanna know what you two were up to? Why didn’t you respond to my messages Prom?”

Prompto shrugged, “Let’s just say there’s good work in hitmaning when an entire regime falls.”

“Is there down time now that there’s peace?”

“A bit. They gave me my old, mountain safehouse as a permanent house since it was compromised.”

“We should spend some time in summer up there.” Luna said.

Noctis tried not to get too caught up in the pleasant feelings, but seeing them after all these months felt like taking a deep breath of air after having his head underwater for months. They might not do everything promised, spending even a weekend alone in the mountains might be next to impossible, but he’d take what he could get.


End file.
